A lot of people probably don't realize how it's like to own a server... It's no easy feat to try and tackle willy-nilly on your own, that's for sure. Heck, I should know- I just barely started one and went live with it the other day, and this was after about a month of preparation- deciding how to do the spawn, fighting with the permissions (seemed like when one of the others who was helping me get it going added just one line to the perms, he'd end up breaking them due to an excessive spacing issue), and all the other interesting things to keep in mind as you craft this server into one you'd want to play on long-term. Yes, we had our spats, and our disappointments, but when it was decided we were ready to open up to the public, it was a day of excitement for everyone involved.

I think a lot of players go into owning servers originally thinking it would be easy as buy an ip, add plugins and perms, and test, then go live- as if it's something that can be done in a day or two... Let me tell you now, it's not :3 It's full of oops's and crap-why-the-heck-did-you-just-break-(insert breakable server stuff here)'s. But once you are done, you realize just how worth it all the stress, anxiety, and multiple bruises from various facepalms, facedesks, and other bodily harm you've done over the course of prepping your server was... I was so excited, I was running all over the house and the friend I live with was wondering what the heck was up!

A few tips for those who are wanting to start their own server- get an idea of what you want in your head well before you look into getting one. Do you want creative? Survival? PvP or mini-games? And how big do you want it? A small one to start, as was my choice, to expand with as your player base grows? Or a larger one to be able to have multiple offerings under one IP? One thing's for sure- the more choices you make before you even go live or even get one, the easier it makes the whole process... I think the hardest part had to be choosing a name for it- I ended up blending my Skype name with that of the person I first had working with me on it. Well, that and deciding which of the hundreds of plugins out there we wanted to use... XD

That's not all this will be about, but I felt like sharing this first bit of this experience with others so some of you who may be considering getting their own server know what to expect- don't expect to be live day 3 or day 15- heck I know someone who's barely going live with theirs after several months of working on it (then again there've only been two working on that one at first vs. like 6 or 7 with mine... (yes, the more people you have working on stuff, the faster it goes). IF you are interested in checking mine out, just message me or look up Modulated Ri-ality here on PMC :3

Until next time
~Riri