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Who I Am

=====================================================================================Hey PMC, I wanna talk to you guys a little about owning a creative story from my own experiences. But, first I should probably introduce myself and let you know a little about my story. Hi! My IGN is MovieMaker2, and I co-own the merged Pwego-Insomnia Server. I was an avid Pwego player from late 2010, under a different username. I became a staff in about 8 months, and about a year after that I created my own server called "Insomnia." A little over a year later, Pwego offered to merge with me. So, I pretty much said "Why not?" And let me tell ya, I never in a million years saw myself as owning such a popular server. It's been a great time these last 3 years playing Minecraft, and my server is soon going to hit it's third year alive.
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What I Have Noticed Lately



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Recently I have noticed in the creative population, and there is absolutely wrong with this, that everyone and their brother owns a server these days. Either it be private, or a 700 member dedicated. Meaning, the amount of people who play Minecraft is being spread among them all very thin. I have also seen the popularity of creative servers declining over the last. (Now before the other creative server owner's rage at me for saying that.) I have been studying meany different creative servers whose numbers were ranging very, are slowly declining. But this happens quite oftendue to people having what I learned is called "creative spurts." So if you own a creative server, and see your numbers going down. Don't worry, they will rise once again.
Secondthing I have seen, is the age range of people who own Minecraft, ever since official release, has decreased. Again, nothing wrong with this. But, kids tend to go more towards the survival/mini-game servers. A lot of it has too do with the increase in quality, and expectations in a builds/creations over the years. As the age goes down, we have to learn to advertise better, and have more patience for the younger crowd.
Another thing I have been kind of seeing lately is rules/stereo-type these newly creative servers are making. Especially ever since the plugin, PlotMe, was released. I tend to check out those servers a lot, mostly when they advertise having it. (PlotMe is a wonderful plugin, that allows you to create custom plots and paths in a specific world. The amazing creator of the plugin, ZachBora, is one of the top Admins on my server.) A lot of these new servers, which specifically call themselves creative servers , only have a plot world and that's it. Their spawn is in a plot world, and force you to build there your whole time being on there. Well, that's honestly really boring. I could see it, if you have a survival server and you want to allow donaters use a plot world just if they or bored or something like they do on the Crafted Movie server. But to really use the plugin successfully, you want to have use it as a beginners area for the server. Such as on Creation Bay, where to get passed the first two ranks you must build in their plotworlds. It's a great way to weed out the greifers and trolls as well.


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Advice to the New Creative Server Owners

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Creating the Server - Honestly, you want to be creative as possible. You have to start off by asking, "If I was a new player, would I like this server?", "Would I play on here?" That kind of thing. Because, the last thing any creative server should be is boring. Or any server in general. Like I said before, everyone and their brother owns a server these days. Meaning you have lots of competition, so you need to make something no-one else can get someone else. You want to shock them, make them stay. So, no just strictly plot world servers. Allow the players imaginations to run wild, give them both plots and an actual Minecraft world to build in.
Advetising Advice - Well use anything and everything you can to do so. *EXCEPT SENDING PEOPLE OFF TO SPAM AND ADVERTISE ON OTHER SERVERS* I have to say that has to be one of the most annoying things, and it honestly will ruin your servers reputation. Use PMC, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LM.Com, etc. They will do wonders for your server, Also, always have a website. Best if it's not sub-domain of another website server, but have one. It makes a good advertising tool, and a great tool for your members to keep up with server.
Staff/Admin Team - Make sure they are a mature team that can work well with each other. I have had experience with this. This can honestly make or break your server. So, this is an absolute number 1.
My Final Advice - Networking/Collaboration. It may seem odd, cause you would expect other Creative Servers to be your competition and a lot of the time they are. But, not always. Creation Bay and My server are considered "sister servers" and we help each other out in situations. Such as recently the owner of the Creation Bay, projectblackwolf, narrated a video I made for my server. It really can be a useful thing.

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Thanks

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Thanks for taking the time to read it. It's been something I have wanted to write for awhile now, but wasn't sure how to address it right. Hope you liked it, and it's useful or gives some insight.



It's up to you! <3 Much appreciated if you did!

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