»The Server's Downfall

Hello




I never intended on making this type of thread, usually @Vojkea would do the honours and I'd just agree with him but, how much longer will this be going on? This is an open letter to aXed, that the rest of the GC community can have a say on.

So, what's wrong @aXed ?​

It's February 2016, and this happens

• Everything is going to plan, server's alive, you're making a good profit and everyone is happy.
• And then you decide to IPban a whole country, thinking this will stop the issues the server was facing then. But along with the overwhelming majority of those 3100 players, you made hundreds more quit. You see, when you ban that many players, you don't just prohibit them from playing, you prohibit the rest from getting full games, and therefore actually playing the server.

• Moving on, you are fine with the new playercount. It's not that bad, you're still making profit, so all good. You can see the playercount dwindling every day, there has not been A SINGLE day since then that the playercount has increased, but you still don't implement any drastic changes.

• Fast forward some time, and your dev team is starting to fall apart(e.x Tibo resigning, Arjen completely losing motivation to code anything etc), so what do you do? You hire whoever is willing to help out, while giving them 0 tangible motive to work for you. You never saw Developers as investments. You thought <Oh, minion will take care of that, Elise will take care of that, short will do that one>. And what do they get? Nothing. Every major(And even a lot of smaller ones) server has at least 1 knowledgeable Developer that works for the server with deadlines, a stable salary and most importantly, a schedule

• It has been years that you have been procastinating everything. From the famous Prison reset that was announced in August and executed half a year later(Literally executed, the document that the COMMUNITY had voted on during the community meeting was completely disregarded even though you and Elise both had it for months), to simple things such as simply responding to a Head-Admin's direct message.

• You just let everything crumble and eventually fall apart. Everything. UHC, Survival Games, Minigames, Eggwars, Skywars, KitPvP. As soon as a server that does not make you the profit that you desire comes across a bug you give up on it, completely. No matter how much the community beggs you to put some effort into those Gamemodes you either ignore them, or completely refuse to get down to it.
• Then, there are the Youtubers. Somehow, you're under the illusion that a 100k Youtuber will come on a white horse and record on a Cracked server that has 0 unique features to it for some pennies. That's not how it works. You gave me the task of finding you a Youtuber twice. And I did. First time, it was https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9urQN4FYDPzjxcz9A475zg and https://www.youtube.com/user/AcespadsMinecraft . You completely procastinated the PracticePvP reset(That you still, to this day do, leaving short to just do everything), which was what had to be advertised, resulting in them never receiving the <Go> for the recordings. Second time, I went ahead and got to a deal with this guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr1JdBrwlkyVyvDPLvY2V9Q for a 2h Stream in exchange for 50$. Of course, you never saw this as an investment, telling me you wanted an English Youtuber, I suppose you meant DanTDM, he's quite a realistic goal to record on a 200 player Cracked server. And even without a big Youtuber, you have still had chances to promote the server via the Content Creator rank that you refused to implement for small Youtubers, leaving this guy without a motive to record on your server

• The list of reasons to the server's downfall goes on, and it's long enough for 5 Threads to be made on it. But I want to believe you know your mistakes, and how to fix them. You may think to yourself <Why does he care, he's just a corrupt ex Head-Admin who promised a nerd a Staff promotion in exchange for a 1 dollar rank>. But alongside me there is a fed up ex Head-Admin who's tired of making posts like these, around one hundred 12 year olds who have fun on your server, some 13 year olds, some 14's etc.. You know who those are? Those people are GC's community. And they've been expecting a change to happen. An ACTUAL CHANGE. Not a newspaper that repeats the same stuff over and over. An ACTUAL CHANGE. They want their favourite minigames back.

https://www.guildcraft.org/threads/revivesurvivalgames.62035/#post-357789
https://www.guildcraft.org/threads/uhc.80133/

We want GC back. The server is FALLING APART. From 3100, to 200. 200. And in a mere of months, there will be 30 players left to the server and you'll still be fine with it because they'll still be donating for the Pay2Win Titan ranks. And in the slight chance you do not know what <Change> I'm reffering to, I'd be more than glad to post another rant/Suggestion thread, but there are already plenty of those, I'm sure of it.​

 

Never thought I'd really agree with you on anything, but hey, here I am I guess

Hopefully aXed sees this and realizes whats actually going on and hopefully then he'll start doing something about all of the issues listed above and other ones that were not mentioned of course

It'd honestly be amazing to see GC make a comeback, it has a great potential, especially with summer break coming for most of our players since we're an EU based server.

Servers like KitPvP, Bedwars, Skywars and even SkyGrid have a very big potential, but unfortunately nothing can really be done about them, take SkyGrid as an example, it hasnt received an update at least in a really long time, and I know, the Head-Admin of it may be a little bit inactive, but even if he wasnt, there wouldnt have been much he could have done, most of our Head-Admins lose their motivation after pretty much being ignored by aXed and therefore not being able to put out frequent updates for their servers

Developers, yeah, uhhh, we dont really have many of those, and even the ones we have arent really that motivated or have to work on many servers at once that they actually get tired of it,
Having at least one Developer for each gamemode would be amazing, I know its hard to find them, especially for a server like ours, with a low playerbase, but you never know, if at least a little bit of effort is put into it, then I'd say we could find some professional ones who know exactly what they are doing and deliver their work on time,

YouTubers, dont really have anything to say about this part since I can pretty much agree with all of it, we defo need YouTubers, they are the best way of advertising your server nowadays, and it will be amazing if we could at least have one for now, more would be awesome as well

Once again tho, GuildCraft has a very big potential, and with at least a little bit of effort, it could defo see its glory days once again very soon, and hopefully this will happen soon enough, but first, aXed has to wake up and actually realize whats really going on

-Martin

 

2nd

 

There is a reason this was the best-cracked server. I don't see why GC cannot get close to that again.

 

"g'day, thank yah fah yah input, us nigbas be bloody fahkin' sorry n us nigbas be workin' so 'ard on fixin' dah issues. Niggas jus dont know wat's 'appenin' in dah back end, im encounterin' issues irl wich dis niggah heah can not deal wit, im fahkin' sorry dat yah av tah suffah because immah not able tah deal wit mah issues in real life n nows yah av tah know about all dat shiz because wat choice do yah av. Dis niggah here'd also liyyke tah add dat naw mattah how dah fuq much dis niggah heah av promised dat dis niggah heah would fix dah server, immah gonnah promise agin because yah niggas seem tah believe dat shit.

kek!"

 

Coming out from the perspective as a Practice admin, I definetly do agree with you on some points.
We've had our reset delayed for a long while now, which is understandable but up to a point. Our reset is done fully just by our developer mostly, with some help from our head-admin and us. This is pretty frustrating for us since a reset should be the owner's responsibility ultimately. We've also had offers from YouTubers which would've made a drastically better impact on our image, but they've just been overlooked. As I do not really know what's happening outside the server I'm staff on, I can safely say the true owner of Practice is short, as pretty much for the past couple of months he's been doing our server management, alongside our help with new ideas, taking care of cheaters, and so on.
We definetly lack proper care from the owner on Practice, but against all odds we have managed to get a better playerbase from what we have had in the past few years or so, witnessing a good amount of 20-30 people on daily, for 2 months or so.
If we had just a little more attention from the owner, I think we would definetly be a successful server as we once were. Maybe we'd even be in our best era, as the current Practice management does show a lot of potential. Practice can definetly be a better server in the future, if everything will go out as it is planned, and if we get the care needed from that one person.
As of now, I really do believe short should be given a higher rank than what he has right now, at least as a minor "thank you" for all the extreme work he has put into our server, and all the efforts he put in it.


Also, I've been an ex-staff member of Minigames, and I can definetly say that server was long gone ever since it was even attempted to be reborn, but again. With proper management, care and honest efforts it may have been up until today, might've had a decent playerbase. Same goes for UHC and SG, which are undoubtedly 2 of Minecraft's most popular minigames. If they were taken into account more seriously, our playerbase might've risen up by a while. There have been lots of gamemodes with high potential that were let go. If it's going to go like this, I can sadly see Skygrid and OP-Prison following that list.


Despite this, some servers still thrive. Skyblock's getting a fairly good amount of players, and so is prison (lately). It's nice to see that some servers are still doing frankly well, but wouldn't it be nicer to see all the servers doing well, not just Sb and Prison? I definetly think it would be.


In conclusion:

There's never a wrong time to start putting care into something. We will never get to where we were once. We will never have those 3 thousand players again. But we can be a lot better than where we are now, with the help of the community, staff, developers, and ultimately, the owner.

 

I understand that it will be a challenge for axed to revive this dying server because minecraft isn't as popular as when its was 2014 , but guildcraft have to make something unique and different that attracts new players . Something unique that ONLY GuildCraft is known for . My suggestion is that advertise the server (to idk , facebook groups , Instagram or etc ) and add something like combining Creative with MiniGames (such as dropper , parkour , elytra games/race for player to earn money in order to buy unique gamepass with ingame money rather then /vote) . IT may sounds crazy but if you're adding something thay no other server have done before , it could attracts new player.

 

i dont want to quote anything but i agree with u with some point
but the shit part is with arjen

i've been playing minecraft for almost a decades and factions
i knew arjen was a dev or owner something from a server called centrixpvp or known as skybattle with elphios
he was never motivated to code something

but about the playercounts
its not just about the bug its minecraft the game was dying not just the server

As you noticed lots of servers went downfall even they were so popular 3-5 years back then

Pika-Network that rivals Guildcraft Players count is going downhill aswell
and changed owners 3 times already (but they still had max of 600 players rn unlike before)

as i was saying "Minecraft" is the one whos dying

not Guildcraft or the players who were just a kid before grew up already

Im not saying that its impossible to get the players back all i was saying it would be very hard


But ip banning a whole country is a very very wrong move

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 8, 2019, Original Post Date: Jun 8, 2019 ---

Trust me its not possible to attract new players if the game itself is dying

 

at this point i could dedicate an entire video to how we could be improve the server but most of the points r labeled out here very clearly

1. Arjen does nothing
2. IP banning a whole country
3. lazy developers

those were the three i can ez label out but there r a few more i could point out

 

I really wouldnt say our devs are lazy. Espesically not Practice’s.

 

can any one remember these og days

 

Oh well i said it trillions of times. and other players suggested stuff too.

But no matter how long and deep we write. aXed didn't and won't and will never give 2 shit about the server.

He milked the cow so much that it just died.


I would say:
1- Change the Staff guidelines to be more clear and more specific.
2- Hire Actual developers and pay them 20% of whatever the server gets (For the greater good). Or give the the choice either for example 50 Euros or 100 euro coupon.
3- Give builders motivation and give them real life money as well.
4- Actually deliver your fucking promises. You reset faction before anyone even ask for it but other game-modes you reset after every random asks for it... Jeez
5- FUCKING don't ignore your heads. Literally every head i talked to is complaining that you are spending more time with your real gf than ur internet gf (GC)
6- Force Accept suggestions. and think about it like this: How on earth that could possibly go wrong?
7- Motivate Current youtubers by giving them shutouts, coupons literally if you play a game of anni. the whole lobby will be full. you will make someone's day if u say hi to him and he will be hella motivated for a whole century.
8- Make me Network Manager smh
9- Actual new content that focuses on giving the players more stuff to play not more stuff to pay for.
10- None biased staff. Heads now days accept and deny anyone they like. even if they may or may not meet the minimum requirements. For Example. Head-Admin of Annihilation is 14 yo, Toxic and Biased. Make Heads accept whoever is qualified and not who sucks the head more.
11- Less focus on P2W and more focus on how to attract new players. and let both the new and old players enjoy their time

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 9, 2019, Original Post Date: Jun 9, 2019 ---

^Sorry for being toxic and aggressive. but i had to at this point.

 

kudos to you for standing up and speaking for how all of us feels

 

there is another mistake that gc does the dont have advertising its really impornant and then updates and things that does something not again and again the same servers and things

 

Oof well harsh post but I also agree. Everything I had to say has already crossed your mind - all of ours actually. Word of mouth is best advertisement. If there's something about the server that would attract people, the current players would be telling everyone they know to come join them and play this server and then their friend's friends would be talking about it to people they know as well.

 

There is a lot of solid points here.

I definitely think there should be more structure within the development team. Your right, deadlines aren't a thing. I feel like it would help a lot to know that X needs to be done by Y, its pretty easy to push projects to the side when nothing is adhering you to that project. Ideally, projects should have deadlines attached (as long as they are realistic). If the developer doesn't feel like they can accomplish it, then someone else should take that task.

I'd like to add a point of my own. Communication in general needs to be improved. Whether that be with the heads or the community. The community never knows what your doing. I think a possible solution to this could be weekly blogs detailing the activities of your week. It can be both a fun and effective way to communicate with the players. Here's an example:

Spoiler: Example Blog

Weekly Updates
Hey gang.

This week I decided to focus on the upcoming survival reset.
I started the week off by testing out different distributions of Spigot to see which offered up the best combination of performance and features. X recommended the Y distribution, and together, we tested it out. I can confidently say it was a success!

Survival Roast Session
Ladies and gentlemen, I have breaking news. Just a day ago, I was severely roasted by a player by the name of Cined. I was roasted so hard, I received a third degree burn.

The weekly blog can be as personal or professional as you want. Just try to have fun with it. Its only a chore if you make it one. The monthly newsletters were a good start, but it failed to provide a sense of a relationship with you. Its genuinely refreshing to see that side of you in those screenshots; you got a great sense of humor, use it in those blogs!

Overall, I think there is a lot that can be done better; I'd like to see things get shaken up and changed around here.

 

Legend