Why MCP Has a Static Growth

[pointlessbob]

Why MCP Has Static Growth

Hi everyone, before I begin I'd like to state that this isn't a hate thread.  It's purpose is to explain my personal opinion on why MCP has not been growing the way we'd like it to and to suggest ways to expand it's commercial value.

First Allegation:  MCP has very little impressive resources.

Other than rather new additions to the server such as drugs, MCP is the original prison server you'd expect to find.  Prison servers were popular when the idea was first made a reality years ago because it was a fresh, new idea that appealed to the target audience.  The server has retained a lot of the original ideas that prison servers created, however that is not an ideal situation.
Since MCP has retained these overused and expired game mechanics, the server can be described as boring to players that have already experienced said mechanics.  (Yes, the drug plugin introduces a new play-style, however the drug plugin is just a minor asset to the server).

Older players can recall my participation with S_Ryan's prison server that I helped construct.  The reason I was so intrigued with it was because Ryan and I had very unique ideas that could be made possible because of his ability with coding.  I still feel that some of the ideas created between us could have made the server very successful with the current target demographic (it's a shame we hit some bumps in that road).
The purpose of this story is to bring up the fact that MCP needs new game mechanics and resources that are unique to any prison server.  Simple things like changing the way you can get out of the prison from mining materials, to dealing with 'blockmasters'--bringing them materials to gain entrance into the next block-- can be a very effective way to add unique gameplay to the server.  This was just an idea that was brainstormed with people I know, there is many more than can be created to benefit the server.

Second Allegation:  MCP needs to create a stable donation system.

There are lots of donation packs within MCP that make money for the server so that it can stay up, but I don't think the majority of the server knows how important these packages are.  Not because it runs the server, but because the packages can create internal server activity if they are constantly updated?while still making money for server quality and endorsement.

An underrated system used in professional businesses is a mechanic in POS systems to view how much profit/sales are gained from each product.  Managers use this to pin-point the good products that make them money, and the bad products that rather a) lose money or b) have very little sales.  MCP can use this system to constantly update their range of donation packages.  Packages like ?Get 1 million dollars in game? are probably never used and should be removed because of it.

Controlling an active and efficient system that makes the server money is probably one of the most important features a server with no background source of money should have.  I personally suggest not putting features that make the game experience 100% more easier, but instead have features that make the experience more fun and spontaneous.  Such features could include MCP's very own laser (edited of course), to even a small super jump tool.  It is still very possible to have features that make the gameplay easier --such as donator mine and a party pack-- as long as they create high profit/sales.

But where should this money that MCP makes through these features go to?  The money created from these sales should first go directly to the server host (keeping the server up is more important than anything).  Any other money should a) be set aside for future payments to the host, or b) used for outside advertising.  This outside advertising allows the server to gain lots of new players daily.  Keeping a voting system on popular sites works well, but paid advertising works better; this form of advertising allows MCP's name to stretch farther over the multiplayer server realm.

TL;DR ? MCP needs to establish unique game mechanics and a stable system to make money for the server to constantly expand.

Thanks for listening, I hope those who can make the decisions to change the server can take this to consideration.  Best of luck to Silas and Zeedin, have a bright future.  - pointlessbob

i also wrote this really quickly so don't make fun of any errors or run-on sentences

[Zeedin]

Good to see constructive comments we need more of this.
So to address some of the things you said.

Silas and I have tons of ideas on things we would like to add, like more RP elements for making money like you would see in an IRL jail and just more RP elements in general. The problem with adding these more complex game play elements it tends to turn people away more, or people not use them. The only way to get it to work is have a high payer base that can spread the word of how fun it is, and yes that is a bit of a catch-22.

As for the money side of things MCP dose not really have problems paying for the bill, and there are the tools there to see the stats of items sold. This may be the first month in long time that it may not cover its bill. The main thing is for MCP not to be pay to win like so many other servers. If money every becomes a problem and we want to continue with this project I can get the server running for as low as $30 a month without giving up our system specs, we would have to drop the other servers kuz MCP is a big girl and likes her 40gigs of ram.

The main thing we always get back to is the main player base for minecraft is very young, and most of them want a crap ton of money, OP itams, rank up 100 times, PvP and building and they don't care about RP elements. The only person I have see have luck with more complex servers ideas is Robert Moran with is DvZ and LOM servers, and that is because of his YouTube flowing.

Now that Silas and I are done school and Silas not knowing what he want to do and me having a year off before I start first year eng, we have a lot of time we can spend on MCP now.
Curntley I am staring work on plugin development so Silas dose not need to spend months finding a dev and the money that goes with it. Silas hopes to update/rework the event system because that is running on tech made two years ago in hopes to breath more life into MCP. *(Kids like that shit don't know why, joked about making a pure event server once because of it)

TL;DR come up with some ideas the are cool fun and don't turn people away, and donate.

Also fuck off if you are going to be a grammar nazi.

And if you don't know RP=Role Play

[pointlessbob]

Yes, a problem with adding new game mechanics is that you run risk of turning the younger players off because of its complexity.  However, almost all prison servers use the same system; mine for resources to make money to advance to higher blocks.  Prison servers like Killion can rally a shit ton of players because it's on the face of prison servers-they have the member base to spread popularity, and for the most part it's sort of self-sustaining.  A server like MCP that needs more players to become more self-sustaining has a hard time competing with servers like Killion, especially if they have similar ideas.

What I suggest MCP do is to recreate and invent new ways to advance through the prison blocks.  This separates MCP from the mainstream prison servers that reuse the classic prison server ideas, and can attract new members into it's community.  A quick example I'd like to use is a server I played on for about a year now, and it never really gets boring (to avoid advertising, I'll conceal the name).  The game is like a MMORPG; you can explore a pre-build world, level up your character to unlock new spells, weapons, armour, etc.  The game always had new quests and updates to look forward to, keeping players intrigued in the server.  However, what really made the server successful was it's system for the owners to make money.

I suggest MCP revamps it's donation system to make it more effective like I stated in the thread.  Having a good system covers the essentials of keeping the server running, and if you increase revenue, the server can also hire DEVs to create constant and fun updates for the server, to endorsing itself within the MC community.

Here's some of my ideas I've had for a while:

"Block Masters" Idea - This idea removes involves different 'masters' for each block.  What is implies is that each block has these masters of a certain type of resource field that you have to complete missions for in order to advance to the next block.  ex. Say there is a blacksmith master, in order for you to complete the mining portion of the block, you have to give the blacksmith 4 stacks of coal, 2 stacks of iron, and 24 diamonds.  He then gives you a pass or a certain amount of money, and then you go onto the next master.  Say this next master is a Herbalist Master, in order to get the money/pass from said master, you need to give 2 stacks of sugarcane, and 5 stacks of melon.  Each master have a different field with different things you need to bring to them, more examples include fishing master, lumber master, etc.
As you advance blocks, some masters require you to go to previous blocks to get those block-unique materials to bring to them.

Donation Pack Ideas:
(most of these speak for themselves, so I won't explain)

Silas' laser
Small event advantages (ex. having 2 extra hearts in lava survival)
Expanded enderchest storage space
Coloured text
Double jump ability
Special event (once per month) that sells strength III or speed III potions

[Zeedin]

why do you think money is a problem there is no point reworking the donation system when it will not help use get more players. Also if you think we have a money problem how do you think we could afford to hire people to make content for the server?

Also the "Block Masters" Idea is not a bad idea but I don't think it would really fit on MCP, would be better to build a server around that idea and not try to be shoehorned it into MCP.

[pointlessbob]

I seem to have not been clear with my thoughts on money making systems.

MCP has a functional system that makes the server capable of running, but it has potential to do much more.  For example, when was the last time someone used the 1 million dollar check donation?  If something gets hardly used and isn't getting you money, it makes sense to remove it and replace it with something better.

Gaining money for a server is important, as I said you can do a lot more than just pay the host.  Many successful servers that I know of use a small portion of their money to endorse their server on different websites and popular servers to gain popularity.

What I'm trying to imply is that with an extremely effective and efficient system to make money, the more successful a server can be.  Donation packages not only make the server money, but it enhances the server experience for the players (it's a win-win).

[Zeedin]

If we want to make a crap ton of money we would just make it pay to win.
Also we do silas puts alot of money in advertising about 1/3 of the money goes to advertising the other 2/3 is for server hosting.

[pointlessbob]

You can still make just as much money as a pay to win system by selling unique misc. items in the shop.
-- and if you're already using portions of MCP's profit for advertising, that's good.

However, I'm suggesting that MCP can make more money for endorsement by making the donation system updated regularly and more efficient.
such as removing packs that no one uses and replacing them with more interesting/appealing things.

[LaughNgamez]

Okay finally some good feedback it looks like.

Over the years MCP has had its ups and downs and usually the main correlation between the ups and downs is admin activity. When Zeedin & I are on the server more often there are more things being done that generally excites players and keeps the server interesting for old players along with helping new players. For example I've hardly been on the server lately and the player count has been steadily declining.

As for MCP being an "original prison server" that's a true fact and it's part of our goal this whole time. Yes prison servers are old and many players are tired of them but MCP has several things which keeps players interested. MCP was not the first server to be a big prison in fact it was inspired by other servers. However the community, additions we've made, and nice ascetics are there to make it the best "classic prison". MCP has not strayed from the base foundation of what a prison server is because believe it or not that's the kind of prison most people know and love. Obviously we've recognized this and tried to make as many non-essential features that players can partake in and we're always looking for more to add.

We've got the ability to do anything that's possible in minecraft at this point and could easily throw in half assed ideas without much thought. If you visit another server with a plugin developer you'll most likely see many bloat features that are added for the sake of being added. This is what S_Ryan's server would have turned into; useless gimmicks that could have been done properly if thought was put into. I know this for a fact because over the years I've had numerous ideas shot at me and people offering to create/implement them for me. If I had accepted all these ideas MCP would be bloated with spammy rushed crap.

In summary we try to create additions on top of the original prison concept to keep the server as interesting and simple as possible. We're always looking for good suggestions even though we shut down 99% of the player suggested ones we take the 1% and put a lot of thought into it. For example if I had not spent weeks thinking of how drugs would work and their implementation we would have some rushed spamable common drug plugin.
In the end it comes down to us needing ideas to be suggested so we can think them through and implement them properly.



Now as for the donation system: MCP's donation system is far from perfect but it is better than most and is at least balanced.

You've suggested some things here that give donators an unfair advantage by giving them access to non-obtainable things.

There are packs used a lot and there are packs rarely bought, none the less they all have had thought put into them. Currently these packs usually just cut out grinding time or give the users non-balance affecting ascetics.

As far as the "gimmicky" or "spontaneous" donation items go there is one reason we have never added them despite how much we'd love to.
Selling things like these goes directly against my views on donations as we have never sold an item that a normal player cannot get with some effort. To keep if fair for players and not have conversions like "oh nice laser how did you get that?" to "I paid $20 for it and that's the only way to get it" we do not have this kind of donating.

A few other servers have added in these "spontaneous" features for all players and that donators just get them easier. Some servers to get something as little as $5 you need to grind for 100 hours.
We probably would not be against adding things like this and I'm definitely considering it more now that I've been made think about it.

The point shop was originally going to be the compromise for things like these: a currency that could not be gotten except by working hard to earn something.
Maybe we'll revamp the point shop and add in the "spontaneous" items to keep things interesting as I'm happy but not thrilled with the current point shop. However our goal is to keep it balanced for non donators and we always consider that before touching donations.

TL;DR: MCP has a fine donation system that is current. The key word being "fine" it could be improved and may be in the future.

[LaughNgamez]

You can still make just as much money as a pay to win system by selling unique misc. items in the shop.
-- and if you're already using portions of MCP's profit for advertising, that's good.

However, I'm suggesting that MCP can make more money for endorsement by making the donation system updated regularly and more efficient.
such as removing packs that no one uses and replacing them with more interesting/appealing things.

As far as replacing old donation packs feel free to suggest new ones. We accept most donation ideas because at some point someone did want every pack that has been added.

[pointlessbob]

If you want MCP to be an original prison server, that's fine.  However it needs unique features to it that no other prison has done; doing this spikes interest in a lot of minds.  I've played on this one game for about 3-4 years, it involves different factions and clans.  Each clan has a base, but all the bases had and still have one similar objective, and that is to capture a terminal/flag for a certain amount of time, while the defending team tries to take it back. 

This may seem irrelevant to MCP's situation, but it's a great analogy.  Throughout time, people got extremely bored of this play-style, and the game wasn't that popular anymore because the lack of innovation.  Eventually, people realized this and created different base objectives such as control points or a payload style.; it re-sparked interest in the game and it got popular again.
My point behind this story is to explain why I think MCP is in need of a game mechanic unique to the server.  Adding something to the prison that changes the play-style just by the slightest can really re-spark interest in the server.
--I think it would be very interesting if MCP still can retain the original prison server objectives while still having a game-play changing feature that's new and can attract new (and old) players.

Secondly, the reason why MCP's activity declines while admins are in-active is because the admins can't offer anything new.  No new events, items, donation packs, activities, nothing.  When this happens, game-play in MCP gets stale and people get uninterested.  Since you and Zeedin can spend more time on MCP now that you're out of highschool, I suggest adding some sort of system that opens up constant game updates for the server.

I think I suggested something of the sort a while ago--something like a quest system.  Meaning that whenever you feel you need to add something new, you can add a 'quest' for free+ players, or a quest for free- players.  These quests can be simple things like "Get p4 armour" or "Make it to the next block without dying".  Of course, when each quest is completed you can get a small or big prize depending on the quest's difficulty.  I still think this could be a beneficial idea for MCP because it allows frequent updates to the server that gives something for the players to do.
A problem I find with prison servers is that after you get free rank, it can get boring.  The goal of the server was to get free, and you've done it, what now?  get lots of money.  Eventually that gets VERY boring and these quests are a fun way to keep the free+ busy.

oh and the quests also can give the Dragon Emerald a purpose lol