Nostalgia...what a weird thing it does to people.
Things that were fun in the past tend to be remembered as being better than they really were, it's a human thing. It's like how I remember Beta updates 1.4-1.7 being absolutely amazing, just like the server I actively played on: But the reality is that an update of that quality today, when you know there is the current version, wouldn't be nearly as appealing, and the server I played on, had it been the quality it was then, today, it would be a dead, empty server.
One time, I went to install MCNostalgia and play Beta 1.2_02, the version of Minecraft I first played on, that was so amazing...and it actually sucked. There is only one or two things I can think of that were "better" then, but everything else is...so bad. Constant crashing for no good reason, inventory management was extremely slow, not being able to sprint, although it wasn't that bad, you really do miss it, even after hours of playing...a lot about it was unappealing by todays standards of the game. I still had fun, though...but I feel it was only because of nostalgia. Not that it was bad period, just bad by todays standards of the game which are so much higher. Why would I want to play a worse version of the game?
Same goes for MCSG, but it's also different in some ways: The real reason the games were longer and food was more scarce? It has nothing to do with how the server changed...it was the players. As long as enough people in the server have experience, this experience will naturally lead them to victory the best possible way: Full, proper chest routes that give plenty of food, followed by actually going out and killing people instead of sitting in a corner for 20 minutes before realizing it's not helping whatsoever. A very large amount of people who play now know what they are actually doing and how it's helping, and it both speeds up games and greatly increases the amount of useful loot that you collect.
This is not to say the new chest items in MCSGv2 didn't play a part in it. It's also not to say that the newer preferred maps with tons of chests don't have anything to do with it either. Think for a minute, though...near the end of V1, back on SG1 or SG2, how often did the game last the 40 minute time? In fact, how often did it even reach the halfway point? Sure, it's more frequent than it would be on Breeze, but it still...wasn't nearly every game like it used to be in the Beta days or anything, despite things being quite the same. The players started playing the game much differently. We were all just..."noobs" back then.
As players, we evolved the game into what it is today. We voted for the small maps in favor of quick games. We started playing better to make the games quicker. We got better at food management and chest routes for loot. We made the maps that have a million chests in them today. It's not MCSG alone that evolved the games. Our desire to be at the top of the leaderboards with the most wins made us better, quickened games and changed map votes. That is why the games are shorter and filled with more loot. It's not just the changes MCSG made...although it had an effect, it wasn't the cause. Guys, I hate to break it to you, but the old MCSG days with scarce food and long games can't come back...it's not physically possible.
I really had to get that out of my system. ._.
