Well, no. There is a middle ground. Nobody seriously wants donator perks, build protection, or anything like that, and nobody has suggested that in this thread. All anyone wants here is moving the spawn point, and I don't see how that ruins anything. The old players who are still here will stick around, and it won't really affect them. The server will still be set to hard mode, there will still be almost no plugins, and the mods will still be fair.LoneSoldier55 wrote:You forget that Minecraft is on the verge of becoming a dead game.
You either get the server you have now, or you're getting a generic 10 year old kiddie donator perks server with build protection and admin favoritism.
The really whiny kids aren't the ones who want trees and dirt, the whiny ones want free diamonds and food. I've seen servers my little brother and his friends play on where you can type /kit 10 times a day and get potions, enderpearls, diamond tools, and all sorts of stuff.
My opinion is that if anyone is good enough to survive on basic vanilla hard mode with normal terrain, they aren't a complete pathetic kid. And believe me, there are people who can't do that. And even after a few weeks, the trees will be gone, then in a few more months the dirt will too. Hopefully we wouldn't need to move spawn again for years, if ever. I think that just a few weeks of fresh terrain will be enough to bring in a new generation of players.
Basically when we talk about what players we want, we're not talking about skill or personality so much as age. When you see someone who can't spell, can't play the game at all, and has terrible interpersonal skills, you might call them a "noob" but what they honestly are is a child. I don't hate children, but when adults and teenagers are trying to relax and have fun, they don't really want a bunch of kids around. That's reasonable. But the thing is, age isn't a binary difference between kid and adult. There's 10 year olds, and they're mostly insufferable. Then there's 12 and 13 year olds, and some of them are ok. Once you get up to 15 and 16 they're often fully competent players, and over that, they're basically the same as adults.
Do we want 10 year olds? Not really. Do we want 13 year olds? No, we don't want those either. But I think we can put up with a few if it means reinvigorating the server. A 13 year old might come on and be a bit of an annoying troll, but they might be able to get along with some 16 year olds and form a team. When that 16 year old is on a team, they have a reason to keep playing. Then once they're a regular, maybe they'll join a better team, or start pvping a lot, or build some really cool stuff. Then maybe they'll bring some other 16 year olds, or some 18 year olds, and the server will get lots of good players.
The kids who are really young and really whiny still won't last here. They'll just quit the first time they starve to death. But some slightly older kids, who are slightly less whiny, they'll probably stick around. And that can be the first step to resurrecting the community.
Clearly my theory isn't proven. It's really more of a hypothesis. Worst case scenario, this idea brings in 10 year olds for a weeks, then they get bored once spawn is trashed, then people get confused about spawn not being 0,0, leading to a slight drop in already abysmal new player rates, and we have to move spawn back. Basically, it might be bad, but it won't make things much worse cause they already suck.
But, best case scenario? I think something like this could bring the old days back for a little while. Minecraft might be past its peak, but it doesn't take that many people to make one enjoyable server. I think just a few more regulars would be enough to make things not feel so dead. If we just have say, 5 more players on every day, that will really change how it feels to play here.
I think Matt's idea is worth a try.
EDIT: spelling
