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The Problem:
Today me and a group of friends were looking to try to promote my server Ghost Craft and we went to some popular servers that were supposed to be great. We wanted to look at what these servers did and see what we were not doing. What we found was the opposite of what we thought we would find. We found lack of plugin knowledge, huge confusing spawns, and bad shops. The servers also had some other similar traits which we thought were unfair such as the following:
Pay To Win:
Alot of these servers had a big emphasis on the pay to win feature where if you donated alot of money you could make yourself practically invincible. This included being able to buy a safezoned base and able to buy gamemode and god mode. These type of features completely ruin the game but the servers that use them are extremely popular and are making extreme amounts of money.
Voting:
Another problem we had with these huge servers was the way they gained popularity. Alot of servers say vote for our server and get money or free diamonds. These types of ways to advertise your server are bad for a few key reasons.
1. It reduces the value of diamonds or other items
2. It makes people want to vote for the server whether they think it is good or not
3. It leads people to leave good servers for these bad servers just because they don't get free items for voting
Bandwagon Effect:
The Bandwagon Effect is basicly once your server gets popular it will get more players not because its good but because there are alot of players. Once people see that a server has alot of players they will think it is good just because it has been able to attract enough attention to itself
How It All Works:
1. A new server opens up and the owners decide to make an automatic message with the links to multiple sites that they have posted on. They installed Votifier and configured it to give every player 5 diamonds each time they vote.
2. Players began to join and realize they can get a quick boost with this new voting feature. They quickly go out and make bases then start to vote. Making the server more popular quickly on these sites while at the same time decreasing the value of diamonds as within hours of the server opening players already have created full diamond armor and have gotten lots of building materials from the excess diamonds they sold.
3. The players who were able to get all of those diamonds easily stay on and continue getting easy diamonds boosting the server up in the rankings every 24 hours. They don't vote because the server is amazing. They vote so that they can get more diamonds.
4. Players searching for a new server notice the high ranking and the amount of player that play so assume the server is good.
5. A rich group of players who wants to be at the top donates to get huge amounts of money and items making the server rich giving the owners of the server the ability to keep it up.
6. More people begin to donate because of how long the server has lasted and the fact that they cant continue playing for free because of the advantages a donor gets.
7. New players see the amount of players the server currently has, the amount of money people have donated, the high ranking of the server, and the easy way to get to the top and join making the server even more popular.
The Conclusion:
These servers use smart methods to boost their server to the top of the rankings and keep players on but they do not actually provide a fun playing experience which is what minecraft is all about. While I do agree that donations are important to a server and players should get stuff in return, I do not believe that players should get such overpowered items or such great amounts of items. Servers should also not make people donate for free stuff as it not only ruins the whole voting system but it also ruins the actual gameplay of that server. I, as a server owner myself, will personally never use tricks such as vote for my server and get free items.
My Final Shoutout:
Try to stop servers from getting to the top in unfair ways like this and try to only vote for a server that you would actually like to play on. Not just because you will get free stuff from it but because you think the server deserves it.
Today me and a group of friends were looking to try to promote my server Ghost Craft and we went to some popular servers that were supposed to be great. We wanted to look at what these servers did and see what we were not doing. What we found was the opposite of what we thought we would find. We found lack of plugin knowledge, huge confusing spawns, and bad shops. The servers also had some other similar traits which we thought were unfair such as the following:
Pay To Win:
Alot of these servers had a big emphasis on the pay to win feature where if you donated alot of money you could make yourself practically invincible. This included being able to buy a safezoned base and able to buy gamemode and god mode. These type of features completely ruin the game but the servers that use them are extremely popular and are making extreme amounts of money.
Voting:
Another problem we had with these huge servers was the way they gained popularity. Alot of servers say vote for our server and get money or free diamonds. These types of ways to advertise your server are bad for a few key reasons.
1. It reduces the value of diamonds or other items
2. It makes people want to vote for the server whether they think it is good or not
3. It leads people to leave good servers for these bad servers just because they don't get free items for voting
Bandwagon Effect:
The Bandwagon Effect is basicly once your server gets popular it will get more players not because its good but because there are alot of players. Once people see that a server has alot of players they will think it is good just because it has been able to attract enough attention to itself
How It All Works:
1. A new server opens up and the owners decide to make an automatic message with the links to multiple sites that they have posted on. They installed Votifier and configured it to give every player 5 diamonds each time they vote.
2. Players began to join and realize they can get a quick boost with this new voting feature. They quickly go out and make bases then start to vote. Making the server more popular quickly on these sites while at the same time decreasing the value of diamonds as within hours of the server opening players already have created full diamond armor and have gotten lots of building materials from the excess diamonds they sold.
3. The players who were able to get all of those diamonds easily stay on and continue getting easy diamonds boosting the server up in the rankings every 24 hours. They don't vote because the server is amazing. They vote so that they can get more diamonds.
4. Players searching for a new server notice the high ranking and the amount of player that play so assume the server is good.
5. A rich group of players who wants to be at the top donates to get huge amounts of money and items making the server rich giving the owners of the server the ability to keep it up.
6. More people begin to donate because of how long the server has lasted and the fact that they cant continue playing for free because of the advantages a donor gets.
7. New players see the amount of players the server currently has, the amount of money people have donated, the high ranking of the server, and the easy way to get to the top and join making the server even more popular.
The Conclusion:
These servers use smart methods to boost their server to the top of the rankings and keep players on but they do not actually provide a fun playing experience which is what minecraft is all about. While I do agree that donations are important to a server and players should get stuff in return, I do not believe that players should get such overpowered items or such great amounts of items. Servers should also not make people donate for free stuff as it not only ruins the whole voting system but it also ruins the actual gameplay of that server. I, as a server owner myself, will personally never use tricks such as vote for my server and get free items.
My Final Shoutout:
Try to stop servers from getting to the top in unfair ways like this and try to only vote for a server that you would actually like to play on. Not just because you will get free stuff from it but because you think the server deserves it.
| Tags |
tools/tracking
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why-are-some-servers-popular-and-others-are-not
Khangbo84
TheMountaineer
Zelvind
MindOfSocial
AloComet
ScotsMiser
Team UNNAMED
MistFaller
star_weaver
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And well, we got no hits, so yeah i tihink you should have a go at that, might be worth you're while man !
But yeah good blog, i completely agree with yoo bro !
But people aren't going to donate if they don't get stuff for it...
There's actually a lot of work that needs to be put in just to make a votifier plugin work properly, not to mention everyone using iConomy could possibly wipe there data with this plugin unless it's on a mySQL server. Which is a lot of work right there to set up the mySQL server and get your tables running correctly... If the server has one that is linked from there website as well, then someone definitely knows a thing or two about plugins. Also media language.
You don't always have to set up 5 diamonds per vote either. For instance when I get around to setting it up on my server. The slogan will be "A diamond a day keeps the digging away." © :P
Really it's sad too, because most servers have the options for kits and what not because half of the MC community complains and wants free stuff once they join the server. I can't even begin to count the number of people that have come on my server, instantly asking for free stuff or just typing /gm, /give, /kit, all in attempt to find the freebies right away. It's sad and pathetic... I fully believe this is the reason servers started giving free stuff. So if anyone complains, then they can just say, blah blah blah this is all for free, do this, this, an that. When you have free stuff to give to the noobs that need it, then they don't complain and try to hack the server for free stuff. It's a win, win.
The reason why servers have donation packages is to support server cost... It cost a lot of money to run a server that's legit, appropriate hosting hardware, with website, voice chat, domain redirecting. All the goods. Shopping around you can find all this for around $60-$70 dollars a month. However, this will only allow for the smaller sized server, 50 slots. 10-20 member voice chat and a website..
Think about all the money that there trying to earn each month and take that into consideration when you look at the donator perks.
I agree some servers have very high pricing to earn a little money for themselves. Then some servers allow for players to rank fully without paying at all, as well as allow donations to help support the server. Which is what most good servers do. If you truly understand what it takes to get your server at this point, then you probably wouldn't mind as much.