Reasons why a Minecraft Server Fails
There are thousands and thousands of public Minecraft servers out there. The Planet Minecraft forums and the Minecraft forums are filled with advertisements for new servers. However, to be honest, an extremely small percentage of those new servers are going to last long and become popular. A lot of servers these days only last for a couple of months and then they shut down. Unfortunately, most of these server's owners deny what they're doing wrong and don't understand why their server shut down.
So, I present to you my article: Reasons why a Minecraft Server Fails. I will talk about why, in my opinion, a Minecraft server fails.
1. Unoriginal ideas
Now these days, if you're planning on starting a survival server with factions, you're guaranteed to fail. There are just too many servers out there right now. If you want to have a popular server, you're either going to have to come up with a never seen before idea or you're going to have to be extremely lucky.
This doesn't necessarily mean that your server is bad if it has a commonly used idea. I have seen many servers with good management and that has a fun and friendly community, but they don't attract many players. There are small servers that are even better than the huge popular servers. Most players want to join a server with more than 100 players 24/7, because they know that those servers are professional and fun. No one's going to even bother looking at a small server with merely 10 players on at a certain time of the day.
Back in the day, there weren't many servers. Minecraft online gaming was new and fresh, players would be on the lookout for new servers with huge potentials.
Let's take a similar example: YouTube. Now these days, getting your channel to have over 1000 subs is extremely hard. It's in our nature, people prefer watching popular videos. I have seen videos with 10 views that has flawless content (entertaining commentary, good quality, etc.), but they won't make it. You have to be really lucky to get that wave of attention travelling from channel to channel.
2. No dedication
If you're a server owner, you're going to most likely spend more time on plugins and configuration files than actually playing. If you don't, then there's a problem. A lot of server owners are lazy, they hire people to do everything for them, which is bad for you. If you're running an extremely popular server with over 100 players, then yes, you will need a big staff team. But for new servers, you have to do everything yourself. You can't trust random people on the Internet to do all of the work for you. They can leave you anytime, and if they're not online, you won't know what to do. Running a server takes a lot of work and research. Some people don't even consider running a server as fun.
3. Poor management
Good management is key to having a clean community, a good staff team, and a fun server overall. What's a poorly managed server? A survival server with over 200 small factions and a highly griefed wilderness. These servers don't have strict enough policies and standards to follow. They don't have skilled enough staff to enforce the rules.
You need to have a game plan, and follow it. Planning ahead time of time helps a lot. With the kind of community we have in Minecraft these days, you have to be strict. This is exactly why more and more servers are whitelisted/graylisted and require an application to get in and play. They want a clean community. This also requires leadership. You can't let players pressure you and bully you into doing what they want. Most of the time, this is bad. Of course, you still have to be open and take suggestions from your players freely.
4.Corrupted/Unprofessional staff team
A staff team's role is to shape the community. They represent your server. They are the face of your server. This is extremely important to have a good staff team who knows what they're doing. You need to know your team inside out and train them regularly. A server with staff members that abuse players and bullies them is just a one way ticket to a server shut down. I have already written a guide on choosing a staff team, so I won't go into too many details.
I have seen lots of servers who just accept anyone who can donate money as a staff member. This make your team corrupted. If you're an owner and running the server just to make money, your server will fail. If you're starting a server, it will most likely have a small community. You can't expect to make any income off of that. It takes time, dedication, and patience.
5. Insufficient funds/Small community
All of the reasons I stated before leads to this one, not having enough money to pay for your server, thus causing it to shut down. You have make your server really enjoyable to the point that your players will want to actually pay you to support you. This is often hard, because many players are young and don't have the means to pay people.
Now these days, if you have a new server and if you're planning on advertising on forums, you won't attract too many players unless if you're extremely lucky. The hardest part of running a server is probably finding dedicated players. You have to be lucky to get that wave attention, like I said before. If your players spread the word, they will get more and more. Building a large community requires lots of patience.
Third Party User "Reasons Why a Minecraft Server Fails."Minecraftforum.net. MinecraftForum, 8 Aug. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
There are thousands and thousands of public Minecraft servers out there. The Planet Minecraft forums and the Minecraft forums are filled with advertisements for new servers. However, to be honest, an extremely small percentage of those new servers are going to last long and become popular. A lot of servers these days only last for a couple of months and then they shut down. Unfortunately, most of these server's owners deny what they're doing wrong and don't understand why their server shut down.
So, I present to you my article: Reasons why a Minecraft Server Fails. I will talk about why, in my opinion, a Minecraft server fails.
1. Unoriginal ideas
Now these days, if you're planning on starting a survival server with factions, you're guaranteed to fail. There are just too many servers out there right now. If you want to have a popular server, you're either going to have to come up with a never seen before idea or you're going to have to be extremely lucky.
This doesn't necessarily mean that your server is bad if it has a commonly used idea. I have seen many servers with good management and that has a fun and friendly community, but they don't attract many players. There are small servers that are even better than the huge popular servers. Most players want to join a server with more than 100 players 24/7, because they know that those servers are professional and fun. No one's going to even bother looking at a small server with merely 10 players on at a certain time of the day.
Back in the day, there weren't many servers. Minecraft online gaming was new and fresh, players would be on the lookout for new servers with huge potentials.
Let's take a similar example: YouTube. Now these days, getting your channel to have over 1000 subs is extremely hard. It's in our nature, people prefer watching popular videos. I have seen videos with 10 views that has flawless content (entertaining commentary, good quality, etc.), but they won't make it. You have to be really lucky to get that wave of attention travelling from channel to channel.
2. No dedication
If you're a server owner, you're going to most likely spend more time on plugins and configuration files than actually playing. If you don't, then there's a problem. A lot of server owners are lazy, they hire people to do everything for them, which is bad for you. If you're running an extremely popular server with over 100 players, then yes, you will need a big staff team. But for new servers, you have to do everything yourself. You can't trust random people on the Internet to do all of the work for you. They can leave you anytime, and if they're not online, you won't know what to do. Running a server takes a lot of work and research. Some people don't even consider running a server as fun.
3. Poor management
Good management is key to having a clean community, a good staff team, and a fun server overall. What's a poorly managed server? A survival server with over 200 small factions and a highly griefed wilderness. These servers don't have strict enough policies and standards to follow. They don't have skilled enough staff to enforce the rules.
You need to have a game plan, and follow it. Planning ahead time of time helps a lot. With the kind of community we have in Minecraft these days, you have to be strict. This is exactly why more and more servers are whitelisted/graylisted and require an application to get in and play. They want a clean community. This also requires leadership. You can't let players pressure you and bully you into doing what they want. Most of the time, this is bad. Of course, you still have to be open and take suggestions from your players freely.
4.Corrupted/Unprofessional staff team
A staff team's role is to shape the community. They represent your server. They are the face of your server. This is extremely important to have a good staff team who knows what they're doing. You need to know your team inside out and train them regularly. A server with staff members that abuse players and bullies them is just a one way ticket to a server shut down. I have already written a guide on choosing a staff team, so I won't go into too many details.
I have seen lots of servers who just accept anyone who can donate money as a staff member. This make your team corrupted. If you're an owner and running the server just to make money, your server will fail. If you're starting a server, it will most likely have a small community. You can't expect to make any income off of that. It takes time, dedication, and patience.
5. Insufficient funds/Small community
All of the reasons I stated before leads to this one, not having enough money to pay for your server, thus causing it to shut down. You have make your server really enjoyable to the point that your players will want to actually pay you to support you. This is often hard, because many players are young and don't have the means to pay people.
Now these days, if you have a new server and if you're planning on advertising on forums, you won't attract too many players unless if you're extremely lucky. The hardest part of running a server is probably finding dedicated players. You have to be lucky to get that wave attention, like I said before. If your players spread the word, they will get more and more. Building a large community requires lots of patience.
Third Party User "Reasons Why a Minecraft Server Fails."Minecraftforum.net. MinecraftForum, 8 Aug. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
Banned forever. Reason: PayPal chargeback on account upgrade.
