Long-Time Private Server Going Public?
I’ve been a server owner for a little over four years now and have learned a lot throughout that time about server development and maintenance. My private playerbase has died down quite a bit but I still regularly develop my different games for the fun of it, which got me thinking about potentially publicizing certain parts of the network. My question is:
Will my server network be at all attractive to any form of audience?
Since the server has always been private, I’ve been catering to the very small group of friends that I have. This has mainly been strictly survival with a few twists and whatnot, but I do have some much broader and niche projects. I’ll list them:
RPG - Basically a Minecraft version of Ocarina of Time with progressive dungeons, big map, a crap-ton of lore, MMO-RPG functions like skills and Slimefun stuff, as well as an optional Skyblock storyline that you could follow during the main quest. Unlike Hypixels MMO-RPG, mine has an ending, which has been a WIP for far too long
KitPVP - Basically ten steps beyond what the average KitPVP server would look like, also with its own storyline and unique functionalities.
Minigames - A small mini games server, with stuff like king of the hill, tnt tag and other classics. No BedWars clones cause why make something that someone else has already done way better?
Lastly, Factions - the most popular game out of all of them with my private players, just a vanilla survival world with a factions plugin added and a few other features. Also unlike the average factions server.
For the most part, the server is pretty chill, nothing too try-hard-ish, nothing quite too experimental but also probably unique enough to stand out.
Anyways, let me know your opinions. Any follow up questions, feel free to ask.
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Requested by jyrotec#0
A few questions/comments
1) factions is lowkey dead unless you're doing something new, which it sounds like you aren't
2) people would rather play hypixel for minigames, and minigame servers are impossible to run if you don't have players online since minigames needs players to function
It sounds like you have a bunch of projects that could be fun on their own, but splitting your focus across all of them and marketing them will be hard.
3) All that being said you still should probably open the server to the public if you actually want people to play on it. Private servers can never really grow
1) tbf, I’ve never personally played factions on other servers, only ever saw videos of them. if you’re thinking it’s got custom items and all the stuff, that’s inaccurate. I guess the most accurate description is a basic smp with an economy and a clan system.
2) Agreed, that’s why I’ve barely focused on the mini games idea. With regards to the projects, for sure splitting my focus is difficult. Being in school doesn’t help with that so most of my projects end up entering staying wip. If I were to release publicly, I’d make sure at least one of my projects is done.
3) yeah, I agree I just currently don’t have much to offer because everything is all a big wip. That’s basically the purpose of my question, should I continue developing?
Anyway, thanks for the reply and your thoughts
Well I will always say don’t give up and continue pushing. It’s always fun to keep building a community and getting feedback from them. See what works and what doesn’t. Experiment and go full send.
But I’ll be honest the faction server doesn’t sound too appealing just because vanilla survival + clans and economy is perhaps the most over saturated server idea ever.
I join your server
I ask if anyone wants to start a clan
there are 2 people online who both say no
I look around for a bit, find nothing but a vanilla server
I leave and go play hypixel skyblock
lol yeah, I’ll be honest it probably only works well with my private group. if I were to go public, I’d leave that as private
not fun indeed
another question, cause this definitely impacts the way I develop my projects: does the common player enjoy a lot of grinding in mmo-rpgs and other similar games?
I personally don’t so I’ve avoided adding that sort of functionality into my projects
I don’t have much statistical information, again because my player audience has basically been limited to just enjoying survival
I think the initial curve doesn't have to be so steep. But at the end of the day, you will reach a certain point where everything becomes monotonous like any mmo-rpg
https://wynncraft.com/ you’d have to do something different than these guys
Wynncraft - The Minecraft MMORPG
Join the largest Minecraft MMORPG for a custom and limitless journey through the most massive adventure map ever created in Minecraft. No mods required!
I know a guy named Elo who runs an extremely cool RPG server with skills, magic, custom mobs, and a lot of cool stuff. His server has like 3 consistent players. It’s just not that easy to market it.
Especially not with Hytale and other games that would totally dominate the market you’re trying to break into
I think that if your audience all this years has been your friends, you should ask them how the future of your server should be
They’re not gonna be that big of a help, they haven’t been the most consistent group of players, there are active period and dead periods
That’s what I’d try to avoid
That’s cool, I’m more story based than anything so that’s what I’ll try and aim for
I’m in no way as much of a professional to do something like this
Well my point in bringing up EnderScrolls (the server I was referring to) and Wynncraft is that it’s an over saturated market dominated by one huge server that does it best. Many have tried to make a server like that (there was literally a poll about it in admincraft last week) but many have failed.
I see, so what isn’t over saturated then
I’m definitely a late player here obviously
imo the best thing to do is to not find something that is or isnt over saturdated. Its to find/build a community, and then just cater to what they want regardless of the global popularity/saturation
if u have a community of 300 people and they really want a factions server? then build a factions server
if they want an rpg style server do that.
Who cares if its saturated. they're there because of the community, and have a common liking of minecraft. doesnt matter how popular or not it is
Building a community from scratch just off the basis of minecraft is damn near impossible nowadays. Voting sites aren't sustainable anymore. Most effective way to get any playerbase is from social creators from tiktok/youtube/etc, and those people arent there because of your minecraft server, but because of the creator.
Fair point, that’s gonna be difficult, but I agree. Thanks