"What kind of server should I start?" - The definitive answer

[stifflered]

There is no right or wrong answer. There are 140 million monthly Minecraft players. You don't need 140 million players to succeed, you need a few hundred or maybe few thousand. With 140 million people playing the game, there are absolutely, 100%, without a doubt a few hundred people out there who will join and love your server.

No matter what you build, you will find them if you look or advertise properly. And if you love the server cause you picked what you want instead of a random answer on a forum, you'll love sticking with the project longer and not quit.

And besides, how do you define success at all? Do you want to make money? Make friends? Make fame? Make a YouTube channel? Do you want long-term loyalty from players or quick turnaround events? Depending on your answer to all that (and more), the answer to, "What servers are most successful?" will be totally different for each person. Figure out what YOU would want to build, and then work your butt off to make it phenomenal.

If you pick something someone in here suggests and you hate it, you're not gonna have a "successful" server for long, are you? You're gonna get burnt out and quit. So, it's best to give a little more information when asking questions like this so that people can make more helpful suggestions specific for your vision.

Here are a few questions you should consider including in your post asking for advice on this topic:

• What does success look like for you?
• How much time do you want to dedicate to the project?
• What do you bring to the table that's unique compared to other server owners?
• Have you played on other servers?
  • If so - which ones were your favorite and why?
  • If not - stop asking questions about what kind of server to launch and join a few first. You'll learn a whole lot more that way

Minecraft Community Essentials - Download

By the way, if you're interested in diving a bit deeper on some of the questions you should ask yourself before you start your Minecraft server, check out the Community Essentials PDF linked below. It include 10 "essential" questions for building a strong community, and it's invaluable for Minecraft and Discord servers. Though, I am biased since I helped put this together.

Download the Minecraft Community Essentials PDF

This thread now has a vanity link for easy remembering. Maybe I'll update this in the future with more helpful tips. https://www.mc-market.org/bestserver

tldr; idk... Anarchy. Yeah sure make an anarchy server. Good luck

 

[Patrick]

Very informative thread, stifflered, I hope this motivates young and new server owners to make something they believe is great.

 

[stifflered]

Very informative thread, stifflered, I hope this motivates young and new server owners to make something they believe is great.

Blessings on your home

I'll likely be updating this to make it into a more structured resource as time goes on, but it's a start for now to see how people respond.

 

[stifflered]

Added a download link to the Minecraft Community Essentials PDF which includes 10 more questions to kickstart the journey.

 

[XER0GRAVITY]

This was well thought out - good job! Hopefully, this will answer questions and inspire new server owners

 

[High Hopes 5]

I totally agree with all of the above. The following is a glimpse at my decision making to hopefully give others a bit of an inside look.

My Path:
The way I've gone about deciding how to set up mine is thinking about how I want to play. My interest in starting a server first & foremost was to be able to play the way I like. I started off with a Bedrock realm, but between bugrock and no admin controls when something went wrong I was unable to determine if it was the game or a player.

Hosting:
So I rented a small shared host server. Why buy the equipment or pay for a standalone when I'm new to all this? For all I knew a month in I'd hate the work I was having to do. This allowed me to get hands on and I expand later.

Survival/creative & vanilla/modded:
Because I'm a player this was easy for me. I wanted vanilla survival because that's what I play. Plus I didn't want to leave behind my bedrock friends. So by using plugins like GeyserMc I could allow them to join as well. With mids the Bedrock players would miss out on certain features.

Success:
When do I reach success? I've already reached success and my server isn't even public yet! I've learned a lot about the process which is a W for me! My plan isn't to make a living off of it so there isn't a financial component for me.

Getting players:
Friends and family is the first place to look. Alot of people say they didn't like Minecraft until they sat down and played. So sit your people down and help em play a bit. Beyond that get active in your communities! Almost everywhere I visit frequently someone is looking for others to play with. Be their solution! Just don't be pushy/spammy.
If you're still not growing the way you'd like my last tip is start a podcast!

 

[Kjell]

Good thread. Puts you to think about what you really want to accomplish.

 

[Raven Stone]

This is an interesting post that challenges peoples thoughts and intents behind operating servers.


Operating servers is something that I've done for a long time, and though many different facets of operations, from full scale network deployment, through your tiny little twitch SMPs. Honestly, I can say that what I've enjoyed the most over the years is some of the people and communities that I've met along the way. There are a lot of talented and intelligent individuals that often don't get the limelight that they deserve for the work and effort that they put in. Success in my definition has many faces. Ideally I would have loved to have a server that was flexible enough to participate in various game modes (be that survival, rpg, skyblock, etc.) but still have the closeness of an SMP, where everyone knows everyone and gets along for the most part.

Unfortunately, ideals are not truth, and so what matters is the building blocks to those successes. Hosting costs money, so does development, builders, and artists - and that's before you look at moderation and general staffing. It can get all so expensive very quickly, and services aren't getting any cheaper. While we often wish that we can cover costs through selling items and perks on our server stores, its not always possible to break even - or if you do, that extra money is often being put back into the servers in the form of development, new features, or upgrades.

Over the years my priorities have changed a lot. I went from being employed with set hours and living a few minutes away from where I worked, to now being in school full time - working part time, and still having to find the time to meet other obligations. (And maybe sleep and eat somewhere in there). Everything is a part of growth and maturing, not just in the idea of growing up, but maturing our skills and knowledge. I would love to be able to sit down again and invest 6-12 hours a day into Minecraft and servers; but that's simply not possible in my current circumstances. When you want to invest time into your projects, you need to make sure that you have good friends who are also on board and can pick up the charge when you have to meet other obligations - but I do want to offer a warning to anyone whose decided to read this far. Your friends are great, but always keep an objective view on whatever you're doing. Is the costs vs. the effort and response worth it? Don't put yourself and circumstances at a disadvantage over a promise or outlook. You need to keep growing and maturing in your own ways - if you can't afford something, you can't afford it. Be objective.

This brings me to my last thought on this topic. You don't need a fancy, hyper developed server to be successful or popular. There are plenty of smaller servers that have found their own forms of success over one simple thing: Community. Ultimately, and this is something I've struggled with myself over the years, your players are going to come together over each other. Players play multiplayer because they want to be around and in environments with other players - otherwise, they would just play a mod pack or something. The foundations success are rooted in the communities that you allow to grow in your environments. Game play is important, yes - and so is making sure your server is operable. However, if a player doesn't feel connected to the community that they are in, they're going to leave.