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So the impromptu Q&A session was a success and we want to plan another one way ahead of time so more players can take part in it! Here is when you can participate in round 2:
ChadTheDJ Q&A part 2 on November 14th at 2PM PST on our Teamspeak (ts.mcgamer.net)
(Going to post a time converter here soon)
Just case you missed the last one here are some of the followup questions I answered:
(Thank you CAmadeusA for taking notes during the meeting while I talked!)
Q: Will the staff team ever be revamped?
A: As of today many changes were made to the staff team to better effectivity and efficiency, as well as user experience. Today, i'm sure you noticed we brought in a large selection of Trial Senior Mods in order to help with some hierarchical changes we made. We won't go too in depth as for these hierarchical changes so not to bore you. If you’re interested, feel free to contact a member of the senior staff and we’d be glad to tell you more about it.
Q: Will there be any changes to the numbers in the hub/SG. Instead of random numbers like SG1728, will there be SG1-200?
A: From a technical standpoint, this would require an unjustifiable amount of work - work which is better spent on things like fixing bugs, anticheat, etc. Yes, we know the signs are confusing, but we recommend using the navigation menu as it’s easier. We want to look into a solution, but it’s difficult right now and not a high priority. We agree there’s always room for improvement, and we will be looking into improving things.
Q: Any updates on the anti-cheat coming up soon?
A: For the last few weeks we have been testing a much more solid anti-cheat that will be able to detect a larger number of hacks than ever before. It is currently only in data gathering mode, and is currently still being tested/reviewed. However, if we don't run into any more major problems, it'll be released sooner than you would think.
Q: Any news/updates on creative servers?
A: We don't currently have any information to present, creative is not on the top of our priority list right now, but it *is* on it. We currently just have more pressing matters to attend to and a lot of our developmental efforts are going towards improving our most popular games and creating a better user experience for you guys at the moment.
Q: Will there be a streamers section in the media section of the forums?
A: It’s something we want to work on but it requires a lot of moderation. Seeing as streamers are not part of MCGamer staff, it would be difficult to ensure they are following all of our rules and regulations. It’s on the list of things to work on. Believe me, it's something we’ve been looking into for a long while, and we even bought the xenforo plugin required to make this happen, we just haven't found an effective way to implement this change yet.
Q: Will there be any new game modes any time soon?
A: Yes
Q: Why are the current leaderboards not updating?
A: Current leaderboards should be. We'll look into it [We discovered the LBs were working but this user was confused on the "overall" and "current" record]
Q: How will you guys get back into the competitiveness with other servers? Like will you ask more game modes, upgrade, etc.
A: We've got a lot of things coming in the way of improving our network We understand that SG is our most popular game mode, and we have more than a few things to both improve the game, things to bring to the clan community, we’ll be addressing a majority of your concerns, and bringing you guys cool new things you might not have ever known you needed.
Q: Will there ever be a West EU server?
A: We don't have much of a reason to bring in a West EU network as our current EU network can sufficiently supply enough room for all areas of the EU region, and it is located in central Europe, making it the ideal place for hosting.
Q: Which game modes do you plan on removing and putting in? I have a few suggestions that I feel the community would like.
A: Working on a new gametype now. We will never stop working on MCSG and continue to improve it further.
Q: How old are you?
A: 25
Q: Can we make a separate deathmatch arena and remove lightning (people wouldn't be able to get out of the deathmatch arena, like other servers)
A: It's definitely an idea we’ll look into, but we can't say whether or not it will be implemented. Changing a core tenet of our network’s most popular game may not be a great idea, but it's something the admin/senior staff team can discuss.
Q: Are you ever going to go back to the hub where you can use signs and there was a quick join?
A: You still can use signs, and there still is a quick join - try "/join sg" without specifying a server number
Q: 4 player death-match?
A: It’s been awhile since we took a poll on this to see what the community wants so that might be changed again in the near future. // Thats an idea that has been discussed before and while we haven't polled for that in a long while, we may run a poll on that idea again, and if popular opinion is in favor of it, we may implement it. However, as for now, we will be keeping our 3 person deathmatch until we have further information.
Q: Are you thinking about making clan servers for MCGamer clans?
A: Yes, it is in the plans. No further information.
Q: How often you you play MCSG personally?
A: I play on an alternate account so I can enjoy the game as it’s meant to be. I also plan to start livestreaming again soon.
Q: What do the developers use to code with each other, real time sharing wise? Do they use Saros?
A: Mainly GitHub for version control, Slack/TS for communication, Maven for dependency management, Jenkins for continuous integration and testing. We also have a custom monitoring system.
Q: Can we change the amount of people in Solo SG?
A: We took an ingame poll on this topic and it was revealed that the 12 player games were the most popular throughout the network at the time, however, we do recognize that it does take away from the experience of the survival games in a sense, and we will be looking into changing that to a 24 player game pending developer investigation.
Q: Will older, popular and nostalgic maps such as Wyverns Wake and Rugged Lands ever be returning?
A: When it comes to maps, things can come and go. Soon older maps people want to see on the network again will be returning, alternating each week. // The thing with popularity with a lot of maps is that they rise and fall. A lot of the time maps that may be popular at one point, may not be later. This is why we implemented our featured map selection in game to show off certain maps, and it will be used in an advertisement. sense to see both of those (and other popular maps historically) make a come back. If you want to see these maps make a more prevalent return, play on them a lot. We track the player data and view regularly, and if the trends show that these are well received, they will be returned.
Q: How will Minecraft 1.9 affect the network?
A: 1.9 is still quite a while away. It's something we've been thinking about and discussing internally for a while, but we don't have any finalized plans yet. We'll inform the community as soon as we know what we're doing. It’s safe to say we will be considerably more careful than we were with the 1.8 update.
Q: Will you be fixing the FNS glitch?
A: This was fixed in a recent update. All development updates are posted in the development changelog, which is found on the forums. See: http://www.mcgamer.net/forums/development-changelog.196/
Q: Are you guys going to put a South America server ?
A: Currently we are looking into the location, however, based on quotes from the area, it may take an incredible amount of funds to start a region in that location. We are willing to do it if the South American community shows that they are willing to support us in that said endeavour, however, it's just as likely that it will not be possible due to the circumstances surrounding that region and whether it's truly reasonable to implement.
Q: Can you reduce the amount of time it takes for an SG game to begin?
A: Yes. It's something we’ve been wanting to do for a while, specifically the idea of lowering the time as soon as the game fills up, thus, improving your user experience to make play and network navigation more smooth.
Q: Is the goal of the server in your opinion more oriented towards a Hunger Games network or general fun minigame network? I've seen lots of minigames like Quarter quell, maps that follow the storyline of the books, etc. Most of the players revolve around the PVP competitive community, so which is your focus?
A: Our stance on it is that even if there is a player base surrounding said game and the statistics show it to be worth continuing to support, we will support said game type. However, we do recognize our roots and understand that we are a survival games competitive pvp community and our goal over the next month or few months will be to entirely improve user experience and quality of our network.
Q: What do the developers use to work and communicate with each other effectively?
A: Mainly GitHub for version control, Slack/TS for communication, Maven for dependency management, Jenkins for continuous integration and testing. We also have a custom monitoring system.
Q: I don’t like how the sidebar with all of the server information looks.
A: It's necessary for us to have the sidebar for moderation purposes; however, you can use "/sidebar minimize" to reduce it to the smallest size we can make it while preserving the information we need. We will as well be looking into alternative solutions for better aesthetic control.
Q: How Do You Tell If Someone's Gamma Is High?? And Why Does Gamma Matter in Games Like Survival Games?
A: Gamma changes are now no longer against the rules, see this thread for full details: http://www.mcgamer.net/threads/the-great-increased-gamma-debate.224647/page-7
Q: What are your thoughts on a UHC styled gamemode similar to badlion instead of UHC worlds?
A: Originally we wanted to release an original idea to help set us apart from other networks while still providing a quality game type, however as we recognize its game breaking to change the formula and expect it to work all of a sudden. We entirely recognize that and we will be making efforts to not only refine, but improve on the game and show that UHC at the MCGamer network can be an enjoyable experience.
Q: Will the ban dispute system ever change?
A: In correlation with the major changes to the staff team that we made today, we will be revisiting areas of our network and reviewing if they need to be updated to fit a modern standard. However, that isn't known for 100% yet either. Thus, this may be prone to change.
Q: I feel like MCSG needs to focus more on the current community and work to please them instead of trying to please newer players
A: Obviously in order to continue to growing as a network, we need to be able to appeal to both of our audiences of the brand new players, and the older players. Brand new players are helpful in order to continue thriving as a network, and older players continue to help us stay afloat and our overall goal is to turn new players into returning players. Thus, it is important to appeal to both audiences.
Q: Why do people say “MCSG is dying”?
A: Honestly, there is always going to be a lot of differing opinions on how a network should be run, and there is always going to be a way that it will be run. A lot of people will come and go from our network as we are a gaming community, and we do attempt to preserve as many players as we can, however, realistically it is impossible to appease everyone. However, just because people come and go does *not* mean MCGamer is dying. The statistics show quite the opposite in fact, we’ve been seeing a positive trend since we reverted to the 1.7/1.8 combo.
Q: Is the AU server hosting ever going to be in Melbourne? Also is there going to be more quantum donors so people can buy it?
A: We have looked into the Melbourne location in the past, and we have determined in the past it may be an expense that we may not be able to do at this moment in time. However, it is something we would enjoy doing at some point, perhaps we’ll do some crowd funding at that location in order to make it happen. Again, we’re not 100% either way on this.
ChadTheDJ Q&A part 2 on November 14th at 2PM PST on our Teamspeak (ts.mcgamer.net)
(Going to post a time converter here soon)
Just case you missed the last one here are some of the followup questions I answered:
(Thank you CAmadeusA for taking notes during the meeting while I talked!)
Q: Will the staff team ever be revamped?
A: As of today many changes were made to the staff team to better effectivity and efficiency, as well as user experience. Today, i'm sure you noticed we brought in a large selection of Trial Senior Mods in order to help with some hierarchical changes we made. We won't go too in depth as for these hierarchical changes so not to bore you. If you’re interested, feel free to contact a member of the senior staff and we’d be glad to tell you more about it.
Q: Will there be any changes to the numbers in the hub/SG. Instead of random numbers like SG1728, will there be SG1-200?
A: From a technical standpoint, this would require an unjustifiable amount of work - work which is better spent on things like fixing bugs, anticheat, etc. Yes, we know the signs are confusing, but we recommend using the navigation menu as it’s easier. We want to look into a solution, but it’s difficult right now and not a high priority. We agree there’s always room for improvement, and we will be looking into improving things.
Q: Any updates on the anti-cheat coming up soon?
A: For the last few weeks we have been testing a much more solid anti-cheat that will be able to detect a larger number of hacks than ever before. It is currently only in data gathering mode, and is currently still being tested/reviewed. However, if we don't run into any more major problems, it'll be released sooner than you would think.
Q: Any news/updates on creative servers?
A: We don't currently have any information to present, creative is not on the top of our priority list right now, but it *is* on it. We currently just have more pressing matters to attend to and a lot of our developmental efforts are going towards improving our most popular games and creating a better user experience for you guys at the moment.
Q: Will there be a streamers section in the media section of the forums?
A: It’s something we want to work on but it requires a lot of moderation. Seeing as streamers are not part of MCGamer staff, it would be difficult to ensure they are following all of our rules and regulations. It’s on the list of things to work on. Believe me, it's something we’ve been looking into for a long while, and we even bought the xenforo plugin required to make this happen, we just haven't found an effective way to implement this change yet.
Q: Will there be any new game modes any time soon?
A: Yes
Q: Why are the current leaderboards not updating?
A: Current leaderboards should be. We'll look into it [We discovered the LBs were working but this user was confused on the "overall" and "current" record]
Q: How will you guys get back into the competitiveness with other servers? Like will you ask more game modes, upgrade, etc.
A: We've got a lot of things coming in the way of improving our network We understand that SG is our most popular game mode, and we have more than a few things to both improve the game, things to bring to the clan community, we’ll be addressing a majority of your concerns, and bringing you guys cool new things you might not have ever known you needed.
Q: Will there ever be a West EU server?
A: We don't have much of a reason to bring in a West EU network as our current EU network can sufficiently supply enough room for all areas of the EU region, and it is located in central Europe, making it the ideal place for hosting.
Q: Which game modes do you plan on removing and putting in? I have a few suggestions that I feel the community would like.
A: Working on a new gametype now. We will never stop working on MCSG and continue to improve it further.
Q: How old are you?
A: 25
Q: Can we make a separate deathmatch arena and remove lightning (people wouldn't be able to get out of the deathmatch arena, like other servers)
A: It's definitely an idea we’ll look into, but we can't say whether or not it will be implemented. Changing a core tenet of our network’s most popular game may not be a great idea, but it's something the admin/senior staff team can discuss.
Q: Are you ever going to go back to the hub where you can use signs and there was a quick join?
A: You still can use signs, and there still is a quick join - try "/join sg" without specifying a server number
Q: 4 player death-match?
A: It’s been awhile since we took a poll on this to see what the community wants so that might be changed again in the near future. // Thats an idea that has been discussed before and while we haven't polled for that in a long while, we may run a poll on that idea again, and if popular opinion is in favor of it, we may implement it. However, as for now, we will be keeping our 3 person deathmatch until we have further information.
Q: Are you thinking about making clan servers for MCGamer clans?
A: Yes, it is in the plans. No further information.
Q: How often you you play MCSG personally?
A: I play on an alternate account so I can enjoy the game as it’s meant to be. I also plan to start livestreaming again soon.
Q: What do the developers use to code with each other, real time sharing wise? Do they use Saros?
A: Mainly GitHub for version control, Slack/TS for communication, Maven for dependency management, Jenkins for continuous integration and testing. We also have a custom monitoring system.
Q: Can we change the amount of people in Solo SG?
A: We took an ingame poll on this topic and it was revealed that the 12 player games were the most popular throughout the network at the time, however, we do recognize that it does take away from the experience of the survival games in a sense, and we will be looking into changing that to a 24 player game pending developer investigation.
Q: Will older, popular and nostalgic maps such as Wyverns Wake and Rugged Lands ever be returning?
A: When it comes to maps, things can come and go. Soon older maps people want to see on the network again will be returning, alternating each week. // The thing with popularity with a lot of maps is that they rise and fall. A lot of the time maps that may be popular at one point, may not be later. This is why we implemented our featured map selection in game to show off certain maps, and it will be used in an advertisement. sense to see both of those (and other popular maps historically) make a come back. If you want to see these maps make a more prevalent return, play on them a lot. We track the player data and view regularly, and if the trends show that these are well received, they will be returned.
Q: How will Minecraft 1.9 affect the network?
A: 1.9 is still quite a while away. It's something we've been thinking about and discussing internally for a while, but we don't have any finalized plans yet. We'll inform the community as soon as we know what we're doing. It’s safe to say we will be considerably more careful than we were with the 1.8 update.
Q: Will you be fixing the FNS glitch?
A: This was fixed in a recent update. All development updates are posted in the development changelog, which is found on the forums. See: http://www.mcgamer.net/forums/development-changelog.196/
Q: Are you guys going to put a South America server ?
A: Currently we are looking into the location, however, based on quotes from the area, it may take an incredible amount of funds to start a region in that location. We are willing to do it if the South American community shows that they are willing to support us in that said endeavour, however, it's just as likely that it will not be possible due to the circumstances surrounding that region and whether it's truly reasonable to implement.
Q: Can you reduce the amount of time it takes for an SG game to begin?
A: Yes. It's something we’ve been wanting to do for a while, specifically the idea of lowering the time as soon as the game fills up, thus, improving your user experience to make play and network navigation more smooth.
Q: Is the goal of the server in your opinion more oriented towards a Hunger Games network or general fun minigame network? I've seen lots of minigames like Quarter quell, maps that follow the storyline of the books, etc. Most of the players revolve around the PVP competitive community, so which is your focus?
A: Our stance on it is that even if there is a player base surrounding said game and the statistics show it to be worth continuing to support, we will support said game type. However, we do recognize our roots and understand that we are a survival games competitive pvp community and our goal over the next month or few months will be to entirely improve user experience and quality of our network.
Q: What do the developers use to work and communicate with each other effectively?
A: Mainly GitHub for version control, Slack/TS for communication, Maven for dependency management, Jenkins for continuous integration and testing. We also have a custom monitoring system.
Q: I don’t like how the sidebar with all of the server information looks.
A: It's necessary for us to have the sidebar for moderation purposes; however, you can use "/sidebar minimize" to reduce it to the smallest size we can make it while preserving the information we need. We will as well be looking into alternative solutions for better aesthetic control.
Q: How Do You Tell If Someone's Gamma Is High?? And Why Does Gamma Matter in Games Like Survival Games?
A: Gamma changes are now no longer against the rules, see this thread for full details: http://www.mcgamer.net/threads/the-great-increased-gamma-debate.224647/page-7
Q: What are your thoughts on a UHC styled gamemode similar to badlion instead of UHC worlds?
A: Originally we wanted to release an original idea to help set us apart from other networks while still providing a quality game type, however as we recognize its game breaking to change the formula and expect it to work all of a sudden. We entirely recognize that and we will be making efforts to not only refine, but improve on the game and show that UHC at the MCGamer network can be an enjoyable experience.
Q: Will the ban dispute system ever change?
A: In correlation with the major changes to the staff team that we made today, we will be revisiting areas of our network and reviewing if they need to be updated to fit a modern standard. However, that isn't known for 100% yet either. Thus, this may be prone to change.
Q: I feel like MCSG needs to focus more on the current community and work to please them instead of trying to please newer players
A: Obviously in order to continue to growing as a network, we need to be able to appeal to both of our audiences of the brand new players, and the older players. Brand new players are helpful in order to continue thriving as a network, and older players continue to help us stay afloat and our overall goal is to turn new players into returning players. Thus, it is important to appeal to both audiences.
Q: Why do people say “MCSG is dying”?
A: Honestly, there is always going to be a lot of differing opinions on how a network should be run, and there is always going to be a way that it will be run. A lot of people will come and go from our network as we are a gaming community, and we do attempt to preserve as many players as we can, however, realistically it is impossible to appease everyone. However, just because people come and go does *not* mean MCGamer is dying. The statistics show quite the opposite in fact, we’ve been seeing a positive trend since we reverted to the 1.7/1.8 combo.
Q: Is the AU server hosting ever going to be in Melbourne? Also is there going to be more quantum donors so people can buy it?
A: We have looked into the Melbourne location in the past, and we have determined in the past it may be an expense that we may not be able to do at this moment in time. However, it is something we would enjoy doing at some point, perhaps we’ll do some crowd funding at that location in order to make it happen. Again, we’re not 100% either way on this.
I'm looking forward to attending the next Q&A session!
