This is my formal surrender. Since the day I started playing on BananaSmores I set out to better the server, and although many will find me conceded, just look around. I did more for the server then I did for myself. I most likely lived in the smallest base on the server. My home was 3 blocks underground and pretty much consisted of very little more than a 4 wide x 3 tall x 5 long vault room and an enchantment area. 9 times out of 10 my time was dedicated to working on the server instead of working on personal projects. I put in an incredible amount of hours towards the server.
Over time, Cynix and myself were discussing future plans for the server’s evolution in private (ie. a mini game server, spawn building concepts, plug-ins) and I suggested that the 2 of us start checking out other people’s servers in our spare time for ideas and suggestions. Once I started doing this, I realized there are tons of servers out there that really have their act together in a way that I had been ignorant to for a very long time. I was amazed at the structure and co-op between the admins and moderators and how their build teams could construct such well planned city layouts that seem incredibly complex. I saw just how easy it was to do things in a different way than I had been accustomed to and how well it was working for them. I enjoyed this exploration phase, because like I said, I was newer to minecraft and had dedicated most of my time in the game to only one server. I discovered the Hunger Games (survival games), the hypixel server (amazing build team), learned more about mods and plug-ins,
talked with owners on how they became successful. All sorts of new things I had never known before.
Then, 1.7.
The Update That Changed The World.
We all wanted to play the new update and gain access to the new biomes, but there wasn’t a bukkit version of it yet. Banana players were begging Cynix to convert, but there was nothing he could do, there was no bukkit after all. 1.7 was such a major game changing update that there were numerous problems that sprouted up from it from the long wait to update the server, to the world size, to moving the world border, moving people’s residences, making biomes mesh together properly, unloading chunks that people had traveled through but never built in. 1.7 caused madness across the minecraft community, not just on BananaSmores.
I continue my research and notice that almost every server online is revamping there servers to 1.7. almost over night for vanilla gameplay and again when the bukkit was finally released. If you take a look online at the MC server lists, among others, you’ll notice nearly 90% of the servers out there deleted their 1.6 worlds and started fresh with 1.7. Nearly all the starting dates on the lists are within a few months. Even large well-established servers, such as hypixel, started over on a new world. Hypixel even tossed out their amazingly beautiful spawn which must have taken several people several weeks to build, in favor of new content. The majority had spoken, and their voice was resounding, “WE WANT NEW CONTENT!”
And, then I find myself on BananaSmores, witnessing the exact opposite. For weeks before I had started getting irritated with people. I had worked my butt off for a few months trying to work on things at spawn and it seemed like there was no communication with anyone as to how/where/what was to be built. We had a spike in new players suddenly and it seemed there was no guidance or regard to future plans from veteran players. Shops were being placed where I had planned roads or where I had planned on building my own shops. Shops were opening up across the street from identical shops. I had built a place to enchant and then suddenly, there’s another place to enchant 50 blocks away. You could literally see it from the other place. Others started building their own roads and none of them matched. Crazy walls jump across streets and over sidewalks. I grew really upset. I had spent more time than anyone on the server working on that area and now suddenly someone took over my projects. It rubbed me wrong and I began to change my attitude. I realize it wasn’t the best looking spawn in the world, but you have to keep in mind, I joined the server several weeks after it had started. Homes and shops were already built scattered about in strange areas, so I had to work with what I had and try to fit it together. And seeing as I was the only one at the time really doing it, it was quite time consuming, so progress was slow. But having someone else just hop on with no regard to your own work and changing things… well, I guess it would be like if you put a residence on your base and someone came behind you and started changing everything even though you thought there was no way they could… except on a much larger scale. Things I had built were getting messed up by new builders with spawn permissions. None of it was getting fixed, no apologies were being given. It’s like no one cared what I thought was going on, even though it directly effected me and my work. I decided to take a break from the game for a bit. I was getting too heated and taking things too seriously, but that typically happens when you’ve invested so much time into something you care about.
When I came back, 1.7 bukkit finally had came through and I personally was VERY upset with how it was handled. I could cite 100 reasons, but firstly, it’ll just make me relive it and get me angry, second, it’ll waste even more time, and third, it’ll start arguments. Suffice it to say, I was not happy. I felt like my opinions weren’t being heard. I felt like my time had been unappreciated. I felt like no one would listen to reason. Skampp, knowing how close Cynix and I were at the time, would ask, “Did you two have fun? What did you guys do last night?” It got to the point that all I could say was, “We argued about stupid pathetically irrelevant shit the whole time. It sucked. He wants to do one thing, I want to do something else and all we’re doing is butting heads over it. He’s too damned stubborn and won’t admit he’s wrong, but he probably thinks the same of me, so it’s getting us nowhere.” My base had been moved, residence stripped, items in chests gone, spawn permissions taken, extra home privileges removed, Vanilla and Creative world accesses taken away, horse deleted, dogs dead. I went to my only personal project on the server and another person had put a residence on the door. Someone else had taken up building on the land. I was furious. At first I thought Cynix had done these things intentionally to me because we were arguing at the time, some of which he probably did do on purpose, I mean, I did use my spawn privileges to burn someone with lava once, but then again, he and I both did things like that to people for fun.
I got so upset, I flat out quit the server and swore never to return, but since then I’ve realized he didn’t do all of those things to me on purpose. He did them because he didn’t know better. I had been begging in favor of a world reset, but he wanted to keep everything as it was and jigsaw chunks on the map and patchwork things together. People put pressure on him. They wanted new content, but weren’t willing to lose what they had done, and he did what he felt was right at the time to do that. I am still in the opinion that this was a wrong decision. There needed to be a world reset for 1.7 and many problems wouldn’t have happened. Personally I would have rather had a 1.7 reset to get all of these new biomes to discover in a new world, rather then to reset the world just to gain 4 new blocks in 1.8. It’s like saying you would rather have a handful of new igneous rocks over amazing game changing content. To me, it still doesn’t make sense why a reset didn’t happen earlier.
I quit the server and began to think of all the things that were making my blood boil. I tried every possible way I could to point out flaws in the server rules and whitelisting and how we can improve the server for the better, but it seems like my rational suggestions are being pushed aside, which in turn just made me more angry. Polite talk turned to debate and then to arguments. It seemed several times that when I tried to point out obviously problems with the server, all anyone wanted to do was tell me how wrong I am. Dear reader, pardon my boasting, but I graduated 13th in my class, I have a 152 IQ, I took honor’s courses my whole life, I’m college educated… I’m not a dim witted person. I have the ability to come up with logical reasoning to deduce problems and then solve them, I assure you. So, when I say things like, “Your white list is a problem,” and you swear up and down that it’s not, it drives me fucking ape shit! What I want to do in that circumstance is make 10 stacks of TNT and just make a giant crater beside spawn, just to prove to you that can’t trust people in this world. I’ve suggested many ways of reducing the threat of new players harming the server, but again, no one wants to admit when they are wrong it seems. No, I don’t think I’m always right. The difference here is that, I’m willing to put aside my personal interests in things and see the bigger picture and what’s best for everyone.
I love how everyone shows Cynix so much support, but there are times when it’s okay to disagree with him. He needs that. He needs to hear other people’s opinions as to what’s best for everyone. He needs options. Don’t tell him, “I want a new updated world, but I don’t want to lose the old one.” You can’t have it both ways guys. Accept that what you’ve built in the past must die in order to make way for a future. This is an adult server, be adults about it. Don’t be selfish.
Yes, it sucks a beautiful cathedral will be lost in the process, but it has to be done. Yes, your inventory you’ve worked so hard for will be no more, but it has to be done. Yes, you will have to start over from scratch. Yes, you will likely die a lot in the beginning after the reset. Yes, it will suck for a while. But it has to be done. It has to. It sucks. But it has to. It’s for the betterment of all that you sacrifice these things. It’s evolution. Those that can’t evolve, die out. Don’t be stagnant. Seize this moment as an opportunity to test yourself and become something even better. Don’t be negative about it. See the good in it. It has to be done…
Your plug-ins are scaring people away. Yes, many many many people on the server love some of them. People you trust and enjoy playing with like them. Many many many others do not. A majority of the minecraft community worldwide want simplicity. More plug-ins lead to more complications. You can’t deny this. It’s not speculation, it’s fact. The more you complicate something, the easier it is to screw up. If you want this many plug-ins, there needs to be a tutorial on how each one of them works to educate people. Many people still can’t figure out how to expand a residence. Not to start one, to expand it, or change your residence rules (ie. mob spawning, fire spread). It’s overwhelming to some, especially new players. Several people (myself included) have lost their perfect villagers in the past due to minecart death. We had no idea that was even possible, nor was it publicized at the time.
I could go on for hours about ways we could fix things, but I sadly feel it would be a waste of my time if we can’t agree that these things and others are serious problems. To continue on in this same fashion and assume everything is perfect when it’s not, is just sheer folly. I’m not trying to start an argument, I’m just stating that unless we can admit errors have occurred, they will never be corrected and will more than likely continue on even after a world reset. I was, and still am willing to help fix these problems. I guarantee you that the benefits would be immediate and you would see rapid growth on the server, but I’ll not beg. If you want the help, my door will always be open for you. But, that being said, this will likely be my last post regarding the bukkit server in its current state.
I’ve had a lot of great times in the past and really wish this outcome had been much different, but I firmly believe that there is a better way to do things and some of the other players’ pride on the server is getting in the way. I truly wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Sincerely, I mean it. I’d like to leave you with one last bit of critical advice. If you want a good looking spawn next go around, start planning now. Don’t wait. Don’t let everyone just run a muck and do whatever the hell they want. Get a solid build team together NOW and start putting serious work on concepts BEFORE the reset. Otherwise, history will repeat itself once more, I assure you. Designate teams, one for destroying land, one for terraforming, one for harvesting resources, one for building, one for landscaping, one for interiors. Find people’s strong suits and pair them with people that will work well together and that they can teach. WORK TOGETHER THIS TIME.
Watch your backs for creepers, keep stacking blocks
Chaos: the state of the universe before there was any order and before stars and planets were formed. An uncontrollable force
Shaman: a person who uses magic for the purpose of curing the sick, divining the hidden, or controlling events and forces
Player of Games
