Yeah I know, we've all been assured that that'll never happen. That used to come as a relief to me. Now I think we're shooting ourselves in the foot. I've been playing Minecraft since 2010. If there's one absolute rule I've learned about this game, it's that nothing lasts forever. You get inspired; You start something new; You show it off to your friends, and get some screenshots; You learn some new skills in the process; You get inspired again, and you move on. It's all high hopes, and bittersweet memories. Rinse & repeat. "The map will never change" is an excellent way to reassure players looking to invest a lot of their time into a project. But we should have never made that promise. Nobody playing on Minecraft is entitled to that, particularly if that promise threatens the server itself. Think of the major types of new players: There are those who are new to the game itself, those returning from a long hiatus, and those switching straight from their old server to ours. The first two types of players are specifically on the lookout for new features. They've certainly heard a lot about them. But they show up like "Ooow pretty map... Where are all the Llamas, reefs, dolphins, shipwrecks, parrots, mansions, Polar Bears, etc, etc, etc...?" Our answer? "Oh don't worry about it. You can get all of those in the mining world. Which resets routinely, so don't build a home there." That's not a compelling alternative. Seriously. I know when I'm new, I'm all about the path of least resistance and if I heard that, I'd just leave. I'd think "There's thousands of other servers that'd let me live among all of Minecraft's newest improvements, I don't owe this one anything. You're more concerned about old inactive players than me... so buh-byyeeee!" The server just screams "OLD" at everyone who arrives. From the post-apocalyptic 5km radius around spawn, to the almost fully-sapped nether, to the jobs/MCtop leaderboards filled to the brim with names nobody has seen in months. New people want to carve out a niche. But they're almost all filled 5 times over. Worse yet is that they're filled with ghosts. This server is absolutely still worth people's while. But at this point we're just praying they take our word for it. And for what? Because inactive veterans feel like they're owed a legacy on center-stage? Your charming ruins won't mean anything when there's nobody here to even hear about them. This is short-sighted, sunk-cost thinking, and we gotta shake it off. This is coming from the guy who's been digging the same canal for a year and a half, and it's only halfway done. I'm fully aware that if this map goes the way of the last one, it's never going to be finished. That thought used to scare me, but it won't mean a damn thing either way if nobody's playing. I'm willing to move forward if I have to. I'm not saying delete this map. I don't see why we can't make it something people can warp to, to get their belongings back, or just reminisce, just like we did last time. But modern-day Minecraft shouldn't be something we visit for rare goods. It should be something we live in from here on out. We get around 10-20 people online during peak hours. Some of that may be due to this time of the year; the server has always had busy/quiet seasons. But the trend is very clear. Now, to the oldschool Differentcrafters that looks bleak. It's clearly bumming a lot of them out (And their constant whining is bumming out new people too, just FYI you buttholes). But in my experience, that's a pretty average server population. That's not what anyone should melodramatically call "dead." We still have a flame going here, let's not wait till it's only an ember to restoke the fire. Us old dorks gotta get out of the way, and get over ourselves. New players aren't impressed, and they're certainly not feeling welcome. Every server has to face this conundrum as Minecraft updates, and there's NEVER been an easy answer. The biggest victims of this would be the up-and-coming towns currently developing on this map. But like I said, your current hard work won't mean anything if you're the last towns ever built.
Apparently, Jordan took a vote for a reset not too long ago about and most of everyone voted no and simply adding another world would probably lag out the server and deleting one of the current worlds would cause even more conflict as well. I personally wont return completely active unless there's a reset. I've built marvelous structures, and they can be rebuilt. I just ran out of things to do and have gotten pretty bored with the server all together.
Jordan is looking into a new world currently. But needs a spawn for it Anyone who’s good at building could speed up the process with a builder application (There wont be a reset, It will just be another new world like how it was done with the "current new world")
