Plenty of opinions flying around the community. Some positive, some negative, some misdirected, some just plain confusing. The staff and the players have been very patient with us through this rocky time, and for that we are all thankful. However, there's a lot of speculation and assumptions going around, leading to much frustration and misrepresentation.
I've spent a lot of time with Chad and the Developers for this entire deal: pre-planning, during the update, and the post-update now. And I want to shed some light on some matters now as well as share my personal opinion on a few topics:
Development May Break (But We Always Fix)
Six months of planning went into this update, half a year devoted to a single step forward for us. Our Developers are some of the best devs in the Minecraft realm. We had contacted some outside help to assist us with this update, so we had their specialized skills as well. And, while we like to poke fun at Chad for his ender pearl skills, that man is a great leader with a strong grasp of both this community and its development. This was an excellent team working with a worthy plan.
In a perfect world, with all those factors combined, the update would have been utterly flawless. And indeed, after the testing on the preview network, things seemed to be working; the pieces were coming together and the planets were aligning for a new era for MCGamer. So then why were there so many issues, such as the ones that happen now?
Ava said it best in another thread:
TL;DR: when developing for a network as large as ours, things break unexpectedly.
As in life, there will always be issues. Development will get hung up on something. There will always be a deadline to make. There will always be some big issue that springs up. We were doing something big, and we all knew it, so we also knew to expect problems. But those problems can be worked through, and the fact that our network is in as good of a shape as it is in spite of those issues is a testament to the work that team has done; had anyone else attempted this, they surely would still be down trying to debug their own issues.
Everything that happens is simply a consequence of a project so large, and that's why the Devs are doing everything in their power to fix it now. No bug fixes are instant, and everything good takes time, but the Devs are working as fast as they can.
It Is a Full Team Effort
There has been a few threads thanking the staff for their efforts, something that we appreciate more than you guys may realize. When we work so hard to present something to the community, having it break down and not function as intended is difficult enough to cope with; having people openly insult you and the community you worked so hard to appease is further salt in the wounds. So when people are gracious enough to thank you for your efforts, rather than deride you for your failures, we can regain at least some of our morale.
The staff have been dealing with incessant flames and arguments, primarily ingame. Players have been highly cynical about the update, spamming some not so nice things about us anywhere they can; there's a lot more where that came from, including some threats against individuals posted on this forums (that have since been deleted and banned). The entire staff has done a great job keeping everything under control, shrugging off the hate in order to keep things civil.
While I may have posted a
STATUS about working nine straight hours on the Update, that is nothing compared to the amount of work the Devs are putting into this. Even with the fixes, they are working tirelessly to make things right. Some have even skipped school so that they can work on this. As Devin stated in a previous thread:
I hear he even skipped school for us...
It's a team effort to keep the peace, so be sure to thank the staff for their efforts.
Bugs are Temporary, Rage is Unnecessary
One of the biggest gripes about the update is the amount of bugs going around. I will admit that that is a fair point: if something isn't working like it should, you are justified in complaining. But the problem I see is that people seem to be assuming that these bugs are going to be a permanent, and thus they think poorly on us for that.
Bugs aren't permanent. In fact, the Devs are working to solve them right now. Check out Gideon's list of bug fixes at the end of his first post here:
http://www.minecraftsurvivalgames.com/threads/mcgamer-v2-some-updates.148852/
Want to help fix bugs? Report them here:
https://github.com/MCGamerNetwork/Issues
As mentioned previously, we expected a bumpy road with the update, and we even warned people about it in the Roadmap thread
HERE. It's inevitably that there are going to be issues, but it's also inevitable that those issues are going to be fixed.
There is no need for premature rage or hate against an update because of the amount of bugs it has. These things get fixed; you just need to give us some time to iron out the kinks.
A little patience goes a long way, and once the update bugs are fixed, we will have a full representation of the MCG V2 update to share with you.
"I Hate Change" (and other such false claims)
Want a shocking history lesson? Everything that's happening now has happened before. It was called MCSG V2. And did MCSG die after that like everyone was claiming it would? Nope, MCSG V2 was the most successful version of SG in the entire Minecraft world. We continue to survive over one year later, growing larger and stronger than ever.
Remember when we introduced the Hub system? People hated it, and we had at least four simultaneous polls demanding that we take it down. "It was too like ____ community" was a complaint I often heard, surprising considering that we were one of the last communities of our size to add a hub. Fast forward over a year later, and the Hub has become such an integral facet of the community that people can't imagine joining servers without it (hint: that Servers page was a lot more active back then).
And you remember all the countless times your favorite website has changed? Youtube? Facebook? Gmail? Fanfiction.com? How many people have petitioned those sites change back to the way they were before?
And remember how many times Minecraft has changed? Remember the big arguments about the sprint key and BSM when the 1.7 update was coming? Now can you imagine not being able to play with that?
The point is that we've been through this time and time again. Change occurs naturally and necessarily, and there's nothing anyone can do to change that.
And for the most part, once all is said and done, change is good. We change to become better than we were before.
The issue is that people naturally react like change is bad, and that's what we're seeing now. But with time, people will learn to accept and embrace it.
In regards to this update, history shows us the future. People rage now, but they calm down once they're acclimated to the changes. Bugs get fixed, player experience improves. New features get used, and become important functions that players rely upon. Despite all the initial cynicism and opposition to change, people embrace the changes and appreciate what it has done for them. Humans are stubborn in attitude, but adaptable in practice.
The Big Picture
The update was a bumpy road, but it's nothing we can't overcome. Heck, we're overcoming it now:
servers are staying up, bugs are getting fixed, myths are being answered with facts, and flame has gone down significantly since only a day ago. And now that we can see past the smoke, I still see how much good this update can do.
It is the Administration's job to see the community in a big picture scale, as one of the largest communities of players in the world. What affects the network will affect players around the globe, and for that reason we must make the best decisions for the community as a whole. And for that reason, I put my faith in the update. This change is good, because its benefits that it will bring to the network and its flaws will be mended over time. And I feel that history will agree with me.
For that reason, I encourage everyone to be optimistic about the MCGamer V2 update. Keep your eye on the big picture, and you'll find a reason to be optimistic as well.
Keep it up
