[TechnoProdigy]

Start fresh...Map wipe, credits wipe, items wipe.

I think we need a public land wipe...

Already happened. Turned the server into a hideous mess.

It's already a hideous mess, how could it get worse?

By wiping the public land again.

Start fresh...Map wipe, credits wipe, items wipe.

It's never going to happen.

However if it did, I'd be willing to bet a large chunk of the current player-base would leave (Myself included).

So you'd leave to start again on another server as appose to starting again on this server?
Either way you'd be starting over...

Minerealm probably won't exist by the time we need to wipe the entire map.

[eah]

The first thing that would happen after a complete map wipe would be a huge land grab for the realms around spawn because everyone is well aware of the huge profits involved. Besides for realm redistribution, it would be no different than how it is now.

Sure, public land is a mess, but besides for the turn-off it presents to new players, it can be fixed.

[Prodigy9]

Start fresh...Map wipe, credits wipe, items wipe.

It's never going to happen.

However if it did, I'd be willing to bet a large chunk of the current player-base would leave (Myself included).

I'd join you if it did happen. Which, as you say, it won't.

Is it because the people playing are getting younger and younger so are more immature?

It's because of (A) the well intentioned but now clearly silly "Op OP," and (B) the actions of a certain troll with an annoying voice.

Also PVP is almost completely dead which leaves me wondering is there any point in guilds anymore other than just another channel to talk to specific friends, so I ask all guilds out there to try become more active in PVP.

It's Minecraft. PVP was hardly even alive to begin with. I do agree that guilds are essentially pointless... I started my own guild, but only so that my realms could still have realm names. Insofar as guilds help with the social / community aspect of the server, we need "Guilds 2.0" pronto.

I make this topic as I do not want to see a great server that I enjoy playing on and have met some very nice people on withering away.

I do agree that the server has deteriorated a bit lately. Remember, though, that this has happened before, and MR has survived.

During the conflict with the "rival" server, what seemed like a majority (or at least large plurality) of MR's active players were banned, and some either remain banned or have chosen not to return. Before that, the purge of NTC removed a few very active players from the server while severely upsetting quite a few other players. I suspect similar events have also happened at other times in the past, though I'm too much of a new arrival to the server to remember them.

This period seems particularly troubled because rather than a simple downturn in the total number of players, we've seen a recent uptick in new (or possibly old) troublemakers. We never entirely bounced back from the previous troubles (and of course, "Op OP" made things worse rather than better), but I remain moderately confident that we will bounce back at some point.


EDIT:

Also PVP is almost completely dead

...
Additionally, because all PVP takes place in the nether around spawn, it is boring. The point of minecraft is to be able to build and mine. Minecraft PVP should include that. It used to be, I would PVP, tunnel beneath people to ambush, build makeshift towers to arrow snipe from, while using lava buckets on people who tried to get to me. Because of the nether spawn location being so built up, you can't tunnel, you can't build stuff. Its a flat plane, so PVP is just a competition to see who can click the fastest, and who has the best stuff, or the most friends. There is no longer any element of creativity to how people PVP.

I would note that with the protected region around the nether's spawn, it's actually impossible to dig tunnels, build towers, and dump lava at the spawn nether gate. That's not necessarily to say that the current version of the nether spawn is worse than the previous versions that were regularly griefed, but it does do a lot to restrict PVP-related building/mining activities in the region.

[kerovon]

I just thought I'd bring up another problem with new player retention I've noticed, and write down my opinions on it. In short, you guys mostly treat new players poorly.

I've seen new players come in, and ask questions that are ignored. I've seen long term players lie to new players after a question is asked. Sure, you may have heard 15 new players ask that question today, and think you are being clever, but they don't know that. It just serves to confuse them.

I've seen new player offer 100 credits for two iron, and rather than have people tell them that they are overpaying, you people race to see who can be the first to profit from that deal.

These aren't just isolated incidents. By and large, new players are not treated well, so they are less likely to stay.

So what can be done to improve player retention (assuming that is the goal)? I'll give an example I've been doing for a while now. I had a couple new players set up shop in my little corner of nowhere, and start building. Rather than try to get rid of them, I chatted with them for a bit. I then bought the realm they were on, and sold it to them for 1 credit. I then gave them access to my warehouse and told them to not go too extravagant with the diamonds. As a result, I have some nice buildings made by friendly players in my zone. Sure, I may be down a stack or so of diamonds, and my brick supplies are heavily depleted, but so what? I have gained more by being helpful to the new players than I would have lost.

If you want to encourage new players, and to shape them into competent members of the community, you need to help them. One possibility that might work is to get together a group of older players, and make a city and guild primarily for newer players. Let them join, and have a plot in a private realm for a while. That way, they will be able to get a foothold and become established with a support net, before they head off on their own. If they get a month, they can make friends, and earn the credits to buy a realm of their own. A lot of them come in asking for friends. If there is a guild with a bunch of new players, who are all lacking friends, then they will be able to self sort into their own cliques, and when they head off to claim their own area, they will have friends who go with them. As long as older players are involved as mentors in that city, it seems like that would help get more players into minerealm, and integrated into the minerealm community.

[Wxclm]

This my friends, is why Kero is awesome

[Ratta237]

I just thought I'd bring up another problem with new player retention I've noticed, and write down my opinions on it. In short, you guys mostly treat new players poorly.

I've seen new players come in, and ask questions that are ignored. I've seen long term players lie to new players after a question is asked. Sure, you may have heard 15 new players ask that question today, and think you are being clever, but they don't know that. It just serves to confuse them.

I've seen new player off 100 credits for two iron, and rather than have people tell them that they are overpaying, you people race to see who can be the first to profit from that deal.

These aren't just isolated incidents. By and large, new players are not treated well, so they are less likely to stay.

So what can be done to improve player retention (assuming that is the goal)? I'll give an example I've been doing for a while now. I had a couple new players set up shop in my little corner of nowhere, and start building. Rather than try to get rid of them, I chatted with them for a bit. I then bought the realm they were on, and sold it to them for 1 credit. I then gave them access to my warehouse and told them to not go too extravagant with the diamonds. As a result, I have some nice buildings made by friendly players in my zone. Sure, I may be down a stack or so of diamonds, and my brick supplies are heavily depleted, but so what? I have gained more by being helpful to the new players than I would have lost.

If you want to encourage new players, and to shape them into competent members of the community, you need to help them. One possibility that might work is to get together a group of older players, and make a city and guild primarily for newer players. Let them join, and have a plot in a private realm for a while. That way, they will be able to get a foothold and become established with a support net, before they head off on their own. If they get a month, they can make friends, and earn the credits to buy a realm of their own. A lot of them come in asking for friends. If there is a guild with a bunch of new players, who are all lacking friends, then they will be able to self sort into their own cliques, and when they head off to claim their own area, they will have friends who go with them. As long as older players are involved as mentors in that city, it seems like that would help get more players into minerealm, and integrated into the minerealm community.

Well said kero, very well said.

[xTidal_Wavex]

Virtus was in the nether today looking for someone to PVP but nobody was on.

[Rick]

So, basically, the community is turning out like this for two reasons.

One, a certain troll has directed a recent influx of new players to MineRealm.

And two, when we (including myself) see a "Player has joined for the first time" notification, we automatically assume it's because of number one and immediately treat the player badly before they have the chance to welcome themselves.

Just my take on the situation.

-Rick

[jeniansmom]

I personally worry less about the fate of the server due to lack of quality players than I do to the possibility of Intelli losing interest / not wanting to keep paying money for a game he doesn't seem to play that much.

Kero has good points about how we treat new players. I don't chat a lot, but when I do I try to be helpful and constructive, and I see that others do too, but some are unnecessarily hostile to new players with little or no provocation. And some really seem to enjoy feeding the trolls, which makes for very annoying stretches of chat. I find myself using /chat more often than I ever did before.

[Ratta237]

Server that hates noobs = a dying server