What happened?

ImDeity used to be one of the bastions of multiplayer minecraft. Hundreds to thousands of people connected daily, even if for just one second. Nowadays we'll be lucky to even get 100 unique players to connect daily.

You can argue that the minecraft active player population has gone down, because I'm sure that's true. But when I log onto a server and see that they have 500 mindless players on at one time, all doing whatever, it makes me believe that defense is false.

Now I'm not one of those time-lost fools who can't even place a block without thinking about the old days, but I really do miss them. And I want them back, or at least the closest we can get. And I don't mean I want the little 12 year old headstrong boys, because population is not what makes a server great, but rather the mature, and strong community we once had. That is what keeps people in.

My model for this is the old town of Stalingrad. There were 3 characters who played a role in my experience with this server who kept me in. Snipey, Mourne, and The_Grendel. They were lively, funny and nice, aside from Snipey, he wasn't so nice. All that aside, they were also mature, and thought better of acting like idiots. Valde came in and did that for them.

I don't want a bland server, I just ask for a bit more maturity and wisdom of which comes with age and knowledge. I see towns run by kids now a day. A good example is Lilgrub's town. Although he is a kid, he at least runs it well. These are examples of the kind of kids, or rather as they deserve a better title, youths, that the server needs, if any. No other kid towns do as well!

On my last note, I know the programming can't be sped up, and there's no way to magically improve the server. So might I just suggest, Deity, that you bring back a whitelist of some form? It will lower the amount of immature people, and raise the amount of mature people. Think of it like this. Without a filter, your coffee will taste horrible, if you can even call it coffee at that point. But with a filter, it's better. It's hard to deny, and if it can be done, it should be done. Because I'd rather start with a small, mature close-knit community again and build our way up rather than keep it a small, immature, and not going anywhere.

 

When does it stop? The end of this train is nowhere in sight.

 

Well in my opinion whitelist will lower the amount of players, people don't like having to fill thing in and waiting to join

 

@Gawkan Yes, but people who realize the worths do fill it out. The recruits we get now is like blindfolding us and making us play a grab-claw machine. We pick out a few good toys beside all the really bad bouncy balls. Except we have 0 control over if they join or not.

 

you know one thing i hate about alot of 'popular servers'? white-listing. you wanna know why? because for one i have no clue how to fill out the whitelisting request but it also ditures people who will muture with their times on the server, as well as those who just want to jump on a server thats all fun and not trying to keep out people. why filter the people who show up when whitelists turn away so many people?

 

what the crap, im not mentioned as one of the big peeps during stalingrads glory days. /sadpanda

 

@Smcallah: I'd like to put this into what I think is reasonable, though not in proportion. If Disney World or Disney Land let everyone into their parks for free, I ask of you, what would happen? I mean free everything, aside from your travel fees. I can tell you this, I know where EVERY homeless person in a 50 mile radius of Disney World or Land would be. Every annoying, disgusting, and rude person would be welcomed in. As opposed to being introduced to the fees of Disney World/Land, which can be very pricey. Disney doesn't want 3 buttons, a penny and some pocket lint. They want the cash, and they only allow people who can afford it into their park.

This means that any damage that is done must first require the doer to be rid of, and then the problem fixed. A whitelist filters these wrong-doers. It's not the best, but it's better than allowing any plain idiot onto the server. As for the good people, they are not really important in this conversation. Of course there will be some good people, but they are not a problem. Hence, why they're good.

As for promoting the server, I don't believe that even came up in one of my arguments. That is an obvious given, and throwing in a whitelist should not stop a good prospect (player) from joining the server. Especially since in the old days a whitelist application was accepted within 5 minutes.

@Fiver: I don't mean to bash on you, as I do not know you, but considering you don't even KNOW how to fill out a simple form is a red flag to me. The requirements are given and are usually just your IGN and How you found the server. Anyone who cannot do that, really, is not a very valuable prospect to the server. As they will probably ignore the rules even if they do whitelist, and cause issues in game. Also, this is a theoretical paragraph, and you shouldn't fight fire with fire (meaning don't say "Well, what if..!". I don't like the what if game, it's stupid.

@prwraith: You were not part of the Stalingrad I am talking about. You came much later, as I recall it. I believe you were the Stalingrad that exploded onto the new reset scene, which rivaled Drakor (or whatever) and Avalon. I was in that too, but it's not the one I mean. Correct me if I am wrong, though.

This is my vision of a good server, I would just like to point out. And seeing the state of the server at the moment, it's hard to argue we're doing very well. I only say this because I know long-term it cannot hurt the server.

 

@Smcallah: What happened to the server, then? Because what I see is that we recruited a bunch of immature players who 1) cannot stick with us, 2) do not have patience (plugins) and 3) probably drove OTHER players away. Half the people I see on the server NOW can't even use local chat! I see 20 messages over where a piece of cobble needs to be placed, or where a hole should be dug.

Also, your last sentence. Because I'd rather start with a small, mature close-knit community again and build our way up rather than keep it a small, immature, and not going anywhere. This was in my first paragraph. I'll explain further. Mature players, I'm sure, will tend to stick to a server more than an immature player. It's like building with legos instead of jenga blocks. AND THIS PROCESS WILL TAKE A WHILE, AS OPPOSED TO OUR CURRENT IDEA (which does NOT seem to be working).With jenga, if you take ONE little block out wrong, the whole thing crumbles, and you lose. With legos, it takes a bit more work to completely destroy the structure. It requires a larger sum of force. Mature: Patient, Understanding (these are the two keys to a player base that you want your players to have). Immature: Impatient, Not Understanding. You don't want that, as they probably wont reconnect next reset, or probably even sooner (ex. They get in a fight with their friend).

Once again, a whitelist is a simple and easy filter. Sure, it's not the best filter, but it's better than having nothing.

This may just be a war on immaturity, and that I'm sick of it, because it's the only thing I see outside of my town chat. I don't talk much in any other channels than /tc because half the sentences (if they can be categorized as one) are written at a second grade level, and don't matter.

And I'm sorry, but I had to quote this one. ImDeity is what it is because of its veterans who joined while the whitelist was up. We all joined, we all played, and we all saw what was worth playing for in ImDeity.

Going back to my Disney World analogy compared to your "good players wont join because there's a whitelist" statement, there will ALWAYS be people who COULD afford to go to Disney World without a problem, but do not go. Whether it be because they do not like Disney World or they just enjoy their money more, their reasons are their choices, and personally I feel that many more (I do not feel like rephrasing, as it is late, but what I mean is that the ratio of GOOD to BAD players would be more in favor of GOOD players with a whitelist.) good players would come from a whitelist rather than good players coming from a no whitelist.

It is just my view, and I think it's worth a try if someone would give it a shot for maybe even a month. I just don't know why we're not doing anything. A wave is going to hit us (point where no one plays on ImDeity) and it seems like we just sit there dumbfounded and stubbornly hold our ground and beliefs, chanting CHANGE IS BAD!

In the end, though, it all relies on the quality of the server. And our server heavily relies on a larger player base for now, seeing as our trading system is player run. This game operates around getting your own materials, or buying them from other people/shops. We chose people, but we don't have many people.

So we take a short term that long term will screw us over (advertise more, no whitelist, get all the immature with a mix of matures). Or we take a long terms, beneficial and longlasting route (advertise more, whitelist, get mostly matures, with a mix of immatures).

I wish it were my choice. Because I know right now that this server is absolute garbage, and the only thing holding me in is Veligrad. A mature, and community-based town, that filters who it recruits, not just recruiting whoever they can. It works just fine for us, we're small but happy. All of our members will attest to this.

 

well then, seeing as i have never even seen the thing for whitelisting kinda points out i would never know how to fill it out, doesnt it? Seeing as you said they are usualy that simple does not mean that to everyone it will be that simple, like for instance the fact that i realy dont remember how i got on this server (alot of people may not remember if they have to fill out a thing with how you found it) Also the 'what if' game is not what i was playing, i have seen some servers my friends play on go from popular to dead because they implimented a whitelist and people could just not be bothered to sign up for the whitelist once they did it because they just wanted pure, unfiltered fun with all the random people on that server. Also saying that someone isnt valuable to the server is just downright rude, sure there are people who are not the best for the server but every player is valuable no mater what they due, even people that get banned for things are valuable because that means the server is worth something to people if they keep showing up to do something in the numbers we get (as in the amount of people that get banned show us how many people, no matter how unsavory, are hearing about the server.)

 

You posted this: "some people wont get it"(whitelist questions). EXACTLY. Thank you for PROVING ME RIGHT on what a whitelist does. Those people are BAD if they can't answer the TWO SIMPLEST QUESTIONS IN THE WORLD. YES, even just TWO simple questions is enough to filter in favor of the good players! I would NEVER associate myself with that person, real life or just a game.

What if game: I know you weren't... I question if you even read what I typed? Or just not being able to comprehend it.

And as for your "dying" sentences, this server is already dead to me. Veligrad is my server, it just so happens to be contained in ImDeity. Like I said, the ImDeity community is just the player-base trading. Towns take care of the rest. More people = more trading, a whitelist will just filter out the idiots so it saves you bans later on.

 

so saying that is kinda like saying im not a good player right? seeing as i cant awnser one of them because of my horible memory?

 

A whitelist, generally, is filled out right after you find the server, however you find it. Your name you should know, that's a no-brainer. And you can lie as MUCH AS YOU'D LIKE FOR EVERY OTHER QUESTION ASKING ABOUT YOU. No one cares how you found us, or who you are on your whitelist application. Just as long as it's there, it shows you're putting in some effort to play on this server. Meaning your show interest in the server. Meaning if the server maintains your expectations, which I KNOW we can, you will most likely stay with us, because a person who applies via a whitelist application is GENERALLY a mature person!

Save the "it wont work", by the way. I can at least save you a lot of typing. I wont stop arguing against you until this is TESTED AND PROVEN WRONG for at least a month. There's nothing to argue about unless you put up a fight.

So if you don't like this, or you think I'm wrong but you have no proof, I'm trying to save you the time, and tell you that you wont win until I am proven wrong by an experiment.

Theoretical statistics mean nothing. They only influence. Experimental statistics are what persuade people.

 

You keep on talking about what you want. It's not about what you want. I know, this is only a suggestion, but what you individually want may not be best for the server. True, it might be, but that is for the server's owner and administrators to decide.

I joined when there was a whitelist. It was a great server then and I believe it still is. Minecraft sales have kept on growing. When this server started, the only people who bought this game were PC gamers (mainly). Today, millions of people have bought it, for several reasons, including marketing and general spread of the game. With this, comes a larger quantity of younger players. It's an easy game, doesn't contain much violence, and allows the expression of creativity, which is ideal for players under 13-14. However, some of these newer players are immature, and that can be expected.

If this server only had a few people who were the "intelligent" group, the server would be pretty dead. All these players give an environment that is fun to play in. They may need a nudge in the right direction when it comes to chat and behavior, but the bottom line is: The people make the server, and an individuals judgement of those people in general does not constitute this kind of change, that has already been decided against, and talked to hell and back.

Also, your attitude towards other players is rather unsavory. This can be a civilized conversation without condescending comments.

 

@Hotfries: Your point wasn't exactly clear, but I think I picked out that you said that if everyone was mature it would be boring. Mature and boring are two different things. Mature people know when to be serious and when you can joke around. It does not at all influence how fun or how boring a person is. Ages are no way to base maturity off of, I know this, it's an unfortunate habit that we have all succumb to, unfortunately. I've seen mature 12 year olds, yet they are the age targeted mostly as the most immature. I'd like to say this: Someone who is mature possesses the ability to be immature. But someone who is immature does not possess the ability to be mature.

As long as your patient, understanding, and you know when to talk or shut up. My standards of a good player. So let all the young-ins join, I don't care. I've heard squeakier voices. Age means nothing, there are always outliers to our stereotypes. I just want good players that will add to the community.

If this server had 20 people who were mature on it ONLY, as opposed to 20 matures and 80 immatures, I would be happy.

And on that note, I'm going to bed for the night.