Opticraft First Impression: My Review

[darkphlegm]

I am a former server owner [host] and administrator. The reason I no longer host a server is because managing a server can be time consuming and irritating, and I really would rather play for fun. Although dealing with a lot of members may get annoying sometimes, I always tried to be fair. Here are my first impressions of your server and some suggestions as to how to possibly improve what you've got going for you. I thought I would write this to do you a favor and give anyone who may be interested a little feedback. I just registered to become a member about an hour ago, and the following are my initial impressions of your server.

Although I understand having a great deal of members is preferable to some hosts for a multitude of reasons, as an average player just looking for a nicely put together server to call home - I was bombarded by my chat window scrolling at one hundred lines per minute when I logged in. Thankfully I had the /deafen command, I think the server might look a lot better if you configured a simple chat-channel plugin. Also, this relieves some of the stress from your seemingly 'overworked' moderators, having a mod  designated for a particular channel rather than a hundred players shouting [and needfully repeating their requests] over one another, and mods trying to reply to who they can.

After registration / reading the rules I went to East Town, where I found a great deal of grief scattered about. I walked outside the town for about five minutes in one direction, but did not reach beyond the area which the terrain was destroyed by grief. I decided East Town was not for me. The same thing happened in West Town, except I tried to go even further beyond the reach of town and still failed to find undamaged terrain.

I now regret voting for your server [on four sites] in advance. It took me ten minutes of privately messaging moderators to get any reply [which was just a hello, then they continued to overlook me.] I only wanted to ask about how leave to main chat, because the text constantly scrolling up my screen at such a fast pace made it unbearable to play the game. Finally, after literally spamming my question dozens of times [this is the only way for anyone to ever get a chance to see it, apparently] someone [a member, not gamestaff] told me to use /deafen. Thanks to this, playing on your server was almost tolerable, although I then am forced to read only irrelevant moderator replies streaming up my chat window, these are of course not filtered out with your current chat system. O.K. I thought, I can just ignore this drawback, if I can just find a nice spot.

I finally got a moderator to reply again, and explained my situation. The moderator told me [very rudely] that she was not a taxi service and that she had other things to do apart from help me. I told her that I understand she had a lot to do [your server is plagued with 12 year old kids, fussing and demanding help on all sorts of things they could figure out themselves.] but that I am a new member, and I thought she was being a bit rude. I asked the mod if she could help me find a remote area to start in away from the regions which have been destroyed. "Just teleport me like 20,000 blocks out." I said. This would have been accomplished by her typing one or two commands. Instead she took the time to explain to me exactly why she didn't have time to do that, and was pretty nasty about it.

I tried contacting other in game staff, but they were all to busy to ever respond. Instead they were all busy replying to mostly bad players, who spam chat and ruin the environment. I am the kind of player who re-plants trees, I fix water with a bucket if I see somebody messed it up, etc. I used to be a host, and so if terrain gets messed up, naturally I fix it. I am an experienced player and could be a very helpful guy to have on your server. Even when I was a busy admin, I could determine whether I was speaking to a legitimately decent player who was asking for a simple request or bit of information, or a fussy little kid who wouldn't do anything for them self. I could tell the difference, because I wanted to have a nice server! So therefor I valued decent players who contributed to a nice atmosphere and kept the place looking good and were helpful!

Anyway, I really doubt I could play on this server, unless maybe some game staff could assist me without being terribly rude, or some of my suggestions would be heard. Setting up a better chat system would, in my opinion, significantly improve your server. More serious players might be inclined to donate or actually play there if it wasn't so obvious that despite having in-game staff there is essentially no order at all. cheers

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[TarynMai]

    We are aware of the large, hideous amounts of grief, and are currently doing our best to fix it. However, there is only so many of us and a huge amount of griefers. We could spend hours,days, even weeks trying to fix the grief. Unfortunately, it wouldnt do any good, as more grief would come. So for now-until we can find something better- we simply fix the grief that is asked to be fixed. I promise that there is undamaged terrain, however it is quite a ways out.
    About the chat, the only thing you can do at this point is to press f1 to hide it. Unfortunately, that hides your inventory and such as well. I actually didnt know about /deafen.
    I apoligize for your rude enocounter with a mod. However, we dont teleport people places because they dont want to walk. We dont have the time for that- as she said. I'm sorry about the rudeness of her answer, but its true- we are NOT taxies. We dont teleport people who have their own two legs to use. And I dont think its as simple as two commands. I might be mistaken, but I believe we have to walk out there to teleport you. And true, we could teleport to the coordinates, but we dont exactly have the coordinates of every area memorized. We'd need to look at the map on the forums, and that would take time- instead of you just walking like everybody else.
    I'd ask that you dont call other players "bad" when you dont know them. I'm not sure what makes you think youre so much better, but frankly, you need to wait. We get to you when we can. However, it is NOT that simple and you are NOT the center of the game. We only have two hands and one keyboard. Give us a break. And you claim that theyre fussy little kids who wont do anything by themselves? Yeah, some are. And you know what they ask for? To be teleported because they "wont do anything by themselves". Before you blame the server and us, I suggest you change your way of thinking, or find a server that has all the time in the world for you. Because frankly? Its about 5 mods against 200+ people. We dont have the kind of time you seem to think we do.

Also, please dont double post. Its pointless, there is a "modify" button at the top of your post.

   

[Nyssa]

I find it hard to believe you saying you ran a server after this.

[animedude88]

i think i am capable of managing things .i wish i could be a mod and manage griefings 

[optical]

Not entirely sure what the point of this post is, but I understand where you're coming from completly.

The main concerns of yours appear to be that there is a lot of damaged terrain. This is our #1 concern right now, and we are working on solving that problem with three solutions, one of which is already deployed.

Firstly, we have an antigrief system which automatically detects griefers by using a honepot system. This catches about 100 players a day, resulting in immediate automatic bans. Unforutnately it was only deployed last week, so all the existing damage remains. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_(computing)

Secondly, we are expanding the current map and retiring all the olde areas. There will be no easy to use warps to get to the crappy nuked area's, and all new users will start in fresh areas. This is nearly done.

Finally, we are adding a member+ world, where serious players will build. Anyone who signs up on the website will gain access to this world. This should weed out the majority of the bad players.

I am also looking at localizing chat and making the /deafen command, as well as other helpful commands more well known and documented on the website.

Thanks for your feedback.

[darkphlegm]

Not entirely sure what the point of this post is, but I understand where you're coming from completly.

The main concerns of yours appear to be that there is a lot of damaged terrain. This is our #1 concern right now, and we are working on solving that problem with three solutions, one of which is already deployed.

Firstly, we have an antigrief system which automatically detects griefers by using a honepot system. This catches about 100 players a day, resulting in immediate automatic bans. Unforutnately it was only deployed last week, so all the existing damage remains. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_(computing)

Secondly, we are expanding the current map and retiring all the olde areas. There will be no easy to use warps to get to the crappy nuked area's, and all new users will start in fresh areas. This is nearly done.

Finally, we are adding a member+ world, where serious players will build. Anyone who signs up on the website will gain access to this world. This should weed out the majority of the bad players.

I am also looking at localizing chat and making the /deafen command, as well as other helpful commands more well known and documented on the website.

Thanks for your feedback.

See, this guy can read what I wrote without getting super emotional about it, unlike the rest of you. These are real answers, and not petty bickering - and you know what else? The fact that he has just let me know that your staff is currently almost finished working on the exact problems I am complaining about [and very specifically these as such] totally justifies my original post.

awesomealicia; logic seemingly escapes you. Your attitude only lends to my argument that the staff is stuck in a rut.

You compare me and my complaint to fussy little kids who won't do anything for themselves, this is easy to do only when one ignores the bulk of my original post. My complaint is legitimate on the bases that the grief and general unpleasant experience is caused by other members rather than suffering from my own stupidity or lack of effort. This is why the way you are using the analogy is not sufficient.

"dont call other players "bad" when you dont know them" Yet "We are aware of the large, hideous amounts of grief "  
[I was referring to those very same players whom you acknowledge destroy your server rather than contribute. What are you on about with political correctness? The irony of your rudeness here is needless to point out, especially considering original post was meant as helpful advice to anyone who might consider it, not a personal attack.]

"Its about 5 mods against 200+ people..."
"...but frankly, you need to wait"
"...Give us a break."
"...We get to you when we can.."
"...you are NOT the center of the game.."
These "rebuttals" of yours perfectly illustrate the backwards attitude the game staff exhibited in the first place that generated my initial complaint / suggestions.

"I'm not sure what makes you think youre so much better"
I explained exactly what makes me better than rampaging idiot 12 year olds, I will reiterate:
- I am experienced and knowledgeable
- I can post on your forum instead of spam your in-game chat about complaints / suggestions
- I have experience as an owner / moderator / player / developer
- I don't grief
- I take time to leave areas better than I found them

Sorry about the double post - it was an accident. Please don't feel so personally offended by my original post, I have been rather cordial, I even voted for your server, remember? You are so angry, I really wonder what the hell is wrong with you. So I decided I may not play on the server, but I saw a lot of good in it right? That's why I bothered to write a long post of advice here, to help the server..

Because you didn't seem able to comprehend the intention of my first post, please let me reiterate the general theme one more time - the reason why gamestaff feels like "its us against 200+ people" is because of a couple easily fixable problems. See, you get all huffed because you're babysitting morons who shred your server all day, then you take it out on a good guy like me who re-plants trees, keeps things tidy, helps other players, and leaves reviews for you to improve your server even if he may not play on it! So for Christ' sake chill out awesomealicia, and Nyssa, you only make yourself look worse posting snide, underhanded remarks during an honest discussion among adults. To Optical, thanks much for your informative and mature reply! I appreciate that you appreciate feedback. You answering those questions for me might be enough of a reason to stay..almost...Cheers  

[Nyssa]

The server news had all this info already available.

[thedude114]

Also, if this is the "greif area's experiences" page, here is mine: once, I was a guest. I read the rules, and then I blew my money on a melon block. I walked out the spawn the long way, and came across a hellish terrain of strip mines, tunnels, old houses, and sinkholes. After a night in this terrain, I went back to the spawn and to the warp station. I went to east town (I think) and walked. Eventualy I found a "forest" after harvesting the remaining Wood from great tree's where poeple had only harvested up to where the hand dosn't reach. I scraped up 5 blocks of wood. After another night in that terrain, fending off creepers with a wooden sword, I walked. Eventualy I came across a forest! A real forest!
  
I found a hill not attached to any of the others, and hallowed it out and made my home. Then came the walls. I guess poeple just wanted to "own" property, but they had to use ugly curtains of cobble. Why not fence? Anyways, I moved to a forest I came across after building my home. It was pristine. I built my house into a hill, and lived there, watching the expansion of houses with growing concern. Once again, I began exploreing far and wide, coming across mountain villages and pristine forests. I was content where I was though. Then came a whole bunch of greifers/guests who took and did not give. They went in my pig farm and killed all the pigs just so they might get a few pork chops. They logged the WHOLE
forest. So I moved to another pristine forest, and founded the village of Woodhall. There I remain, expanding the city, getting as much forest as possible, so that it will not suffer the same fate.

[thedude114]

Also, will the "fresh areas" affect any of the existing areas? Because do not want my town to be deleted.

[ViperZeroOne]

I'd tend to agree with the majority of rebuttals here, and find some serious flaws in the original "review".  As someone who ACTUALLY ran a fairly successful server, and only shut it down due to a lack of affordability, I can say that the team here at Opticraft does a fairly good job with what they have to work with.

You claimed to be a server owner, darkphlegm, but in your own review you show both a lack of courtesy, something a GOOD owner would have in abundance, as well as knowledge of the "business" end of a server.

You complain that you had to go to extremes to get a mods attention because they were handling mundane 12-year old's issues.  You then proceed to state you requested a mod to teleport you, itself a mundane task that you, as a server host, should have known not to request.  To me this makes you appear very hypocritical, and is a huge reason why people accuse you of the "center of attention" mentality.  I, myself, accuse you of this both due to your own admissions in your "review" as well as the creation of your review itself.  If you have a problem with a mod it's not for you to go post your story in the public domain like an adolescent child, you escalate it to the owner through the proper methods.

In addition, as a server host or decent player you should know how the /help command works.  This would have given you a ton of incite on the commands including /helpop (to request a mod's help) and the aforementioned /deafen command.  The simple fact that you couldn't be bothered checking the /help information leads me to believe you were probably a very poor server host and will only be a nuisance to the mods here.  From your own admissions, in the way you've told your story and addressed you're critics on this topic, I can already picture how you tried to gain mod attention in-game and completely understand the mod's hostility towards you.

As an additional tidbit of critique, you obviously didn't do much reading and searching before you started complaining to the mods.  You state how hard of a time you had finding an ungriefed area, yet if you look at the top of this page you'll plainly see a button for the live map.  Within 10 seconds of clicking it I was able to locate over 30 possible build sites that are free and clear of other builds.

Your arguments in your review are lacking knowledge, research, and simple courtesy which makes your entire review nothing more than a "poor me" statement.  Personally I think we have enough of those people on the server already, and I won't shed a single tear if you decided to move on.

That's my 2 cents, hope you enjoyed.

[SoulKnightGT]

Loooong message

*Claps* Bravo.

[cschurz]

One thing that irrationally gets on my nerves:

It took me ten minutes of privately messaging moderators to get any reply [which was just a hello, then they continued to overlook me.]

PMing a mod is not how to get help. Since we are truly overrun by players sometimes, we use a custom client plugin that visually alerts mods when somebody needs help by searching for specific words in normal chat (and /helpop, the designated command to attempt to get a mods attention). PMing a mod only wastes time anyways; simply saying your question in main chat opens it up to be answered by any moderator, any trusted member, any regular member, and any guest, who may happen to know the answer. Moderators are not the only people able to answer basic questions about the server.

Additionally, The way you state the moderator replied to you (a simple "hello") implies that, rather than outright stating what you needed help with, you decided to greet the moderator in a PM before asking your question. Sorry, but that is not going to get you any answers. When there are this many people online, the mods pick out the people who succinctly and specifically state what they need help, teleport to them, get the job done, and move on to the next person.

Sorry, but you have no room to complain about the mods with the way you ask for help. Maybe you could pull that off on your little 20 player server, but not here.

Given the fact that your server's forum was hosted at a free host ("http://houseofphlegm.lefora.com") and you closed it down because "This forum sucks and I no longer care." I'd be willing to bet you ran of server 20 people online, max. That, and the first words of your various server information pages are  "Low population" (http://servers.spout.org/info/922)("http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/984703-house-of-phlegm-premium-11-247-low-pop-survival/"))

The problems you've stated are true and we are aware of them and working on them, as optical said, but your claim to be a "former server owner" is completely irrelevant because you didn't truly run anything. You aren't a developer. You aren't an experienced administrator. You're just a guy who threw plugins on a host and called it a server and now thinks he's entitled to something.

Thanks.

[ViperZeroOne]

Loooong message

*Claps* Bravo.

Thank you, thank you... *bows*

I'd also like to make the additional observation that I believe we can all plainly see what kind of a player this person is.  He's spammed the forums with this topic, obviously pissed off mods in-game, was very disrespectful on his own "site".  Obviously an individual who has a lot to learn about internet etiquette, and the last person you would want to host a server.

My server, to put it in deject3d's terms, wasn't anything more than a "little 20 player server" but I always treated my players, mods, and admins with the level of professionalism a host of a 300 player server should display.  We were always trying new innovations and working directly with developers to create plugins that improved things on the back-end.  It's a lot easier to deploy an "experimental" plugin on a small server than a large one.

When it came to my mods, they were always selected to ensure they could not only handle the task but that they could handle little bothersome people like you (darkphlegm) in a professional manor.  That's why I can classify myself as a former server owner.  You were just a kid running a little multiplayer game with some plugins...  You obviously didn't work on development.  You obviously didn't contribute to the plugin list.  More than likely you couldn't build anything decent without creative mode (and it's even questionable there too).  You're just a hobbiest, as it were.

It's people like you that make it hard for people like me to become trusted on servers like this.

[Hasan (Tabooti)]

I was contacted by Mr. DarkPhlegm ingame, and he kindly asked me to teleport him to 20,000 blocks away from the towns, because it was all griefed...

I told him that I can't do it, and that he'd actually have to walk, he later responded criticizing me, and saying "Do I apear like a 12 year old moron asking for teleportations? And why can't you teleport someone who wants to get to his friends?"

I responded with "You can always /home (your friends name) The get there quickly.

Then he insisted that I answer his 12 year old question.

I told him, that IF I wanted to answer that, I would have, but it would be strictly unprofessional, so I didn't.

He never responded after that.


What I've experianced, plus what he posted on this thread. Makes this all apear like subjective criticism, that's aimed at the staff, rather than how they work, and operate.

And as Mr. Teller has once said, "You can't try something out for 5 minutes, and conclude it's results like someone who has been doing it for a very long time"

[ViperZeroOne]

And as Mr. Teller has once said, "You can't try something out for 5 minutes, and conclude it's results like someone who has been doing it for a very long time"

I wholeheartedly agree with all of your post, but this more than the rest.