An open thread on the status of the modern "statup" Minecraft server

Hello everyone.

Through all of the DMCA craziness that has happened in the last year, I believe there is a large issue that needs to be addressed-- server unoriginality. Personally, no new servers are original. Let's face it. If I had a dollar for every time I read a thread about creating a factions server, prison server, or a poorly made RPG, I would have a lot of money.

My question is, why is this becoming more and more prevalent? Originally it was just the prison server, but now it seems that every single server has the exact same things, and I can't be the only one that is being driven crazy by this. A year or so back, I worked briefly on creating an RPG prison that was based on a plot-line of being accused of stealing Poseidon's trident (Yeah, I know, so many better things) and working your way, bribing NPC guards and uncovering who framed you. I had the story line written out and everything. (Did it for a week during lunch). I never actually finished it due to college stuff and do not plan to because, frankly, Minecraft is dying.

If it was so easy for me to come up with an unique approach to an old idea, why aren't there thousands of servers doing this? Why do they all have to be bungeecorded networks of the same old junk!? (I am in no way advocating bungee)

Little bit of a rant, but I feel it's just.

 

Why are most TV shows about a group of people going about a 'routine' or elimination contest, juiced up with arguments and frustration driven by intensity-pumping background music and cut-aways to talking about even simple things with bleeps ("So I walked to the counter and put down my bleeping money and said 'Gimme a pack of bleeping cigareettes right bleeping now'")

Without a constant push of minecraft updating (we went from like 12 upgrades per year to 1, then less than one) and adding new things to drive new ideas to be constantly churning from them, the general idea pool stagnates and the dominant algea takes over. You dont get 15 mins of fame for being original anymore, you get your 15 mins of fame for doing the same thing as everyone else, and if lucky, maybe that turns into 30 minutes. People tend to be less capable to adapt to a situation, and people assume people are less capable to adapt, so by making a server 'just like that one' you dont require extra work from the players to figure out what to do. Its an extreme taken too far; the core concept of poker is the rarer the possibility of the combo of cards, the better the hand. You could sit down and say "Gunna change this up, make a 4-card hand poker game" and the concept is generally easy to pick up - and thats how the core of servers should be - but society has bred out such differences (gosh, that would be like a show showing a daily routine where folks aren't being bleeped every 4 seconds, and focusing on people being friendly and cooperative with other people - wont last 2 episodes before being pulled) and folks have gotten used to that much change being too extreme for their comfort level, so they seek things closer to the core herd. Its easier to say "We deal 6 cards out, use the 5 that make your best 5-card combo' as there is a small change, but very easy to come into going 'okay', compared to trying to work out the analogous hand to a fullhouse in 4-card hands, even though the rule of 'rarity determines rank' is basic enough guide. But just beyond the capability for most societal members to focus enough mental faculties towards understanding -- too much change, out of comfort zone, must play a 5 card game exactly like i saw a youtube video lets-play in order to find my center again...


Originality will always be embraced by some people, but the fraction is always small, and the safe zone around the core herd where an original idea could stray off and survive grows smaller over time - you have to be much further away to be something so new and novel that you give rise to a new center, and indeed there will always be someone that manages to pull that off, but then, that means they are soon the core surrounded by the zone of familiar once they have proven their ability to survive and thrive. Good , truely unique server ideas are genetic mutations, some will allow for domination of new environments - teeth, claws, wings.

 

@Tecno_Wizard There are original servers out there, finding them is the problem, when you have 10's of 1000's of servers online at any given time, it hard to wade through that much junk. Minecraft is not dying, sales are still expanding for the client. Server numbers seem to be basically the same from a year ago and the year before that, the problem is, quite frankly, the portals to finding new and different servers. Again wading through the thousands of servers to find something new is a daunting task. Planet minecraft and their ilk do not promote/encourage/spotlight new modes of game play, they take the money from the servers that will pay and promote them.

It is the gate keepers that are the problem, not the game itself, IMHO.

 

@bastion, I'd agree there. All voting sites nowadays are rigged, and the sites are just in it for ad revenue. (I block ads from sites like that)

 

I hate coming across factions servers, I am trying to make a custom rp (Not prison or anything) And I'm putting a lot of work into it. People need to realize that to get players interested you need a lot more that facitons or prison.

 

The main problem i noticed is that people are interested in making money rather than having fun on the server. Its easier to copy a popular idea and churn it into money than to make an original idea which will probably not be recieved as well.